
Class _6JLi 21 
Book .0-3 

Copiglit'N" 

COPYRIGHT DEPOStr. 



THE MAKING 
OP A CHRISTIAN 



BY 
ROBEET E. L. JARVIS, Ph. D. 






0XA17E & OOMFANT, PUBLIBHBBB 

TOPEKA, KA17SA8 

1903 



-^ 






■ Tvwo C 






I 7 3 7 5^ vT I 



Copyright 1903, 

By CRAKE & COMPANY, 

Topeka, Kansas. 



CONTENTS. 



P(jLge. 

I. What is Christianity? 15 

II. How TO Become a Christian, ... 45 
III. Why Become a Christian? .... 83 
ly. The Time to Become a Christian, . 103 
V. Objections to Christianity Irra- 
tional, .7 129 

VI. Excuses Which Do Not Excuse, . 157 

VII. The Christian's Assurance, . . .185 



Ilo mv jFatj^tt anb 9^otdet. 

Whose beautiful Christian characters have been an 
inspiration and a joy to me throughout the years^ 
this book is affectionately inscribed by 

THE AUTHOR. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The themes of greatest impor- 
tance in philosophy and religion are 
comprehended by few, and misun- 
derstood by the masses. 

Especially is this true of the fun- 
damental doctrines of Christianity. 
With the exception of a few minis- 
ters who have devoted much time to 
the consideration of the doctrines re- 
lated to Christian life and develop- 
ment (and these are so extraordi- 
nary as to be called ^^specialists''), 
the society of Christians is justly lia- 
ble to the imputation of ignorance 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

concerning foundation principles. 
Many ministers confess that they are 
not gifted in the work of winning 
men to Christ, ministers learned in 
the languages and literature and 
very competent in other things. The 
man called of God to preach the 
gospel must be a soul-winner. All 
other gifts and accomplishments are 
subsidiary and insignificant in com- 
parison with this one. If only a 
small percentage of preachers are 
'^wise in winning souls/^ a much 
smaller percentage of laymen can 
claim the distinction. 

If the Church's apology for exist- 
ence be to save the world, surely all 
of its members should be skilled in 



INTRODUCTION 

the use of those truths and methods 
which our Lord has honored through 
the ages for the extension of His 
dominion. But as a matter of fact, 
there are some congregations in 
which there is not a member to 
whom the pastor would confidently 
intrust the unsaved for instruction 
in the way of life eternal. The au- 
thor speaks from actual experience, 
having given a part of his time for 
a number of years to evangelistic 
work, where he has had occasion to 
observe the great need of intelligent 
Christian workers. The need of the 
Church is not so much great preach- 
ers, according to the common ac- 
ceptation of the term, not fine organ- 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

izers, not social prodigies, but will- 
ing workers who know God and un- 
derstand the nature of men. 

The subjects discussed in the fol- 
lowing chapters are the j&rst truths 
of the Kingdom of God, the very 
foundation-stones of Christian char- 
acter. For a long time the author 
has felt the need of a clear statement 
of those things necessary for one to 
do in order to become a Christian, 
and has devoutly wished that some 
one would write a book upon those 
subj ects, thoroughly evangelical, 
free from sectarian bias, and so 
clear that ^^he may run that read- 
eth." No such work has yet ap- 
peared, and the subject has so long 

8 



INTRODUCTION 

burned in his soul that to write will 
no longer brook delay. 

The author has hoped from the be- 
ginning to write what might be used 
as a handbook among Christian 
workers, and be by them recom- 
mended to seekers after religious 
truth everywhere, as a safe, conserv- 
ative exposition of the way to God. 
How well he has succeeded in his 
purpose must necessarily be left for 
the public to determine. 

What could be of more importance 
to a wayfarer lost in a wild wood 
than a guide with sufi&cient knowl- 
edge to lead him back to familiar 
scenes? Of vastly more importance 
to the Christian worker is a knowl- 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

edge of those things necessary to 
guide lost souls into the road which 
leads to God, " whose ways are ways 
of pleasantness, and whose paths are 
paths of peace.'^ 

The book purports to clear away 
the underbrush of superstition aud 
false conceptions which have grown 
about the tree of life, so revealing 
the bright and shining way that the 
lost man may rightly direct his own 
steps to its cooling shade and bab- 
bling brooks and healing leaves. 
Also, to furnish the Christian 
worker with such arguments as will 
enable him to disarm the foes of re- 
ligion and win them to friendship 
for our great Lord and Master. 

10 



INTRODUCTION 

And that the book may thus prove 
helpful to the servants of Christ, 
and be the means of leading many to 
the blessed light who have not the 
advantage of personal counsel and 
instruction, is the earnest prayer of 
the author. 

Manse Fiest Presbyterian Church, 
Clay Center, Kansas. 



11 



WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY? 



18 



" Let the man who despises religion learn 
first to know it ; let them see it as it is — 
the inward happy crisis by which human life 
is transformed, and an issue opened up to it 
toward the ideal life. All human development 
springs from it and ends in it. Art, morals, 
science itself, fade and waste away if this su- 
preme inspiration be wanting to them; the 
irreligious soul expires as if from want of 
breath. Man is not; he has to make himself; 
and in order to do this he has to mount from 
bondage and darkness of earth to light and 
liberty. It is by religion that humanity be- 
gins in him, and it is by religion that it is 
established and completed.'' — Auguste Sahatier. 



14 



WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY? 



In speaking of the development of 
the chief religions of the world, Prof. 
Telle in his great book, " The Science 
of Religion/' calls attention to the 
characteristic thought pervading 
them: 

In the religion of ancient Egypt, 
for example, ^^Life in all its full- 
ness '' was emphasized. Contrary to 
the deductions from early discover- 
ies, recent research has revealed suf- 
ficient data upon which to base the 
conclusion that this religion, instead 

15 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

of despising the present life, cher- 
ished it ; and all the more so because 
it was the beginning of an existence 
to be prolonged beyond the tomb. 
It was their belief in the immortality 
of the soul that led them to seek the 
preservation of the body for ^^ mill- 
ions of years/^ and thus they devel- 
oped the wonderfully successful sys- 
tem of embalming, the secret of 
which is a lost art to this day. 

To Zarathustranism belongs the 
distinction of giving to the world the 
conception that '^ man is a co-worker 
with God/' The life of the pious 
man is a sacred labor and a struggle 
against evil, in what we are wont to 
distinguish as the world of nature 

16 



WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY f 

and that of the Spirit; in short, 
every pious man, according to his 
several ability, is united with God in 
the work of destroying the evil and 
building up the good. 

Brahminism stands upon a higher 
ground, and conceives a universal 
redemption. It was the first religion 
to be ambitious of embracing all 
mankind. 

It is to the Greeks that we are in- 
debted for beauty and refinement in 
religion. They were the first to 
speak of the Divine and eternally 
beautiful. Their aesthetic ideas were 
carried out in art, architecture, and 
poetry. The personal element pre- 
vailed in their religion, and their hu- 

17 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

manitarian ideas were wondrously 
beautiful. In the Roman religion, on 
the other hand, society predominates. 
The individual was sacrificed to the 
community. It was this idea that en- 
abled them to found a great empire 
and give to the world their immortal 
laws, by which their own nation was 
governed and which so much influ- 
enced succeeding generations. But 
their leading thoughts were dia- 
monds hid in heaps of rubbish. 

It remained for Christianity to 
gather together these sparkling jew- 
els, and many more — ever invisible 
to heathen philosophers — and con- 
struct a canopy of truth whose 
brightness should be like the firma- 

18 



WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY? 

ment above us. ^^It is the most 
many-sided of all religions, and it 
thus possesses an adaptability, or 
elasticity as it has been called, 
which explains its great wealth and 
variety of forms. In its proclama- 
tion of the Kingdom of God, which 
exists not only in the future but 
within ourselves, and in its beautiful 
doctrine, the brotherhood of men, it 
aims at the closest union of men, 
whatever be their origin. It is nei- 
ther opposed to the world, nor is it 
of the world. It condemns self- 
abnegation for its own sake ; it com- 
mends it for a pious object. It has 
neither optimistic nor pessimistic 
bias." A perfect religion, it can 

19 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

neither be added to nor taken from 
without marring its beauty and com- 
pleteness. Correctly miderstood, it 
is a finished temple of trnth, perfect 
in design and construction, and chal- 
lenging universal admiration. It is 
the highest conception of life that 
the world has ever known or can 
ever know, with Christ the perfect 
man for its ideal, and human re- 
demption as its object. A universal 
religion, it is an unfailing remedy 
for the disease of sin. Its healing 
medicines are for the health and 
happiness of the nations. A physi- 
cian and a balm, it both discovers 
the wounds and applies the restora- 
tive ointment. 

20 



WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY? 

It claims the distinction of being 
an absolute, final, and sufficient reve- 
lation of God's will to man. Not its 
pageant nor its hoary age, nor yet 
its elaborate ceremonies, are de- 
pended upon to establish its claims, 
but its recognized powers to restore 
the soul to a healthy condition, to 
build up and sustain a splendid so- 
cial organism, and to lead to univer- 
sal righteousness. Its credentials 
are what it has accomplished for in- 
dividuals and communities and na- 
tions. It is of small consequence, 
therefore, that the kingdom of 
heaven is a mystery and the doc- 
trines of Christian life insuscepti- 
ble of mathematical demonstration. 

21 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

The achievements of Christianity 
are not hid, even from the misan- 
thrope, to whom they bear incontest- 
able witness. It is Christ's interpre- 
tation and enforcement of religions 
phenomena. Religion, with the life 
of the King of Glory and the Prince 
of men, His doctrines both humani- 
tarian and divine. His character re- 
plete with Godlike attributes, love, 
mercy, goodness and truth, injected 
into it, — the most wonderful and ir- 
resistible influence known to man. 

It must be admitted that some- 
times the supporters of religion and 
Christianity have stood in the way 
of progress, but they have been 
^' blind leaders of the blind.'' But 

22 



, WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY? 

since scientists and philosophers 
have also been in the front rank of 
those who made it their business to 
persecute the innovator who pre- 
sumed to take a step forward in civi- 
lization, there should be some exten- 
uation for the crimes committed in 
the name of Christianity. 

It should be remembered, how- 
ever, that superstition, persecution, 
intolerance, or corruption of any na- 
ture has no encouragement in the 
revelation of the divine in the Scrip- 
tures. 

On the other hand, Christianity 
rightly interpreted and interwoven 
into human lives and institutions 
has need of no other argument to 

23 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

commend it to the appreciation of all 
who love the true and the beautiful. 
The Gospel's most eloquent 
preacher is the Christian life. Un- 
thinking, unbelieving men may rule 
the element of divinity out of the 
New Testament and its doctrines, 
but the divinity of Christian living 
cannot be logically denied. Not the 
eloquence of Paul, or ApoUos, or 
Augustine, or Chrysostum, or 
Swing, or Beecher, has opened the 
world's eyes to the beauty and power 
of Christianity, but Christianity it- 
self working out in civilization the 
powers of its ennobling principles; 
its reality; its superiority, and its 
right to live. 

24 



WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY? 

Christianity is Christ incarnated 
in individual lives, and organized 
into a brotherhood, called in the Gos- 
pels, ^Hhe Kingdom of Heaven." 
This society is supposed to exem- 
plify the life and doctrines of its 
Founder and to enforce His teach- 
ings. In truth, it must be admitted 
that the Christian community has 
fallen far short of these require- 
ments, and yet there has been suffi- 
cient of their realization to impress 
the world as it has never been im- 
pressed from any other source; or 
from all other sources, for that mat- 
ter. If Christianity were a creed, 
claiming supreme authority on that 
ground, it would have many rivals. 

25 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

Other religions have creeds, some of 
them much more elaborate. We 
have a creed, " a philosophic basis " 
for our faith, but the influential 
characteristic of Christianity is not 
its doctrines but its life, — a life, 
however, that could rest upon no 
less secure and rational foundation 
than the incomparable doctrines of 
the prophets, the apostles, and Jesus 
Christ, — doctrines that are at the 
foundation of every polished super- 
structure of character. 

Christianity is a life, life trans- 
parent and radiant with the divine 
glory in which the world sees Christ. 
Sometimes sin in the Christian's life 
overshadows the Christian virtues 

26 



, WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY? 

and Christ is eclipsed. But even 
through the clouds, men see the 
bright jewels of Christian character, 
shining as the stars in the night. No 
one has yet denied the completeness 
of the ideal Christian life. It is con- 
fessedly the highest conceivable 
form of being, transcending by a 
thousand leagues the character of 
Greek and Eoman divinities, the 
conceptions of philosophers, and the 
dreams of poets ancient and modern. 
To be a Christian is to imitate 
Christ, to be like Him. ^^He that 
saith he abideth in Him, ought him- 
self also so to walk even as He 
walked.'' Imitating Christ in life, 
we shall awake in his likeness when 

27 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

the morning of the new world 
springs to light. It should not be 
expected that the child of God shall 
at once be perfectly like his Master. 
Albeit, he should become more and 
more like Him. A child adopted 
into a new family, though he strive 
with all his power, will not be able 
to walk unerringly in the steps of 
his foster father. The infant learn- 
ing to walk must hold to some one's 
hand, else his tender limbs, unused 
to bearing the burden of his clumsy 
little body, will totter, give way, and 
precipitate him to the ground. The 
young Christian must hold to his 
Father's hand if he would success- 
fully walk the rough way of the 

28 



WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY? 

world. Even then he will stumble 
and make many crooked steps, but he 
shall not fall unless he shall loose 
his hold upon divine support. His 
Father will cling to him. ^^For I 
the Lord thy God will hold thy right 
hand, saying unto thee, ^Fear not; 
I will help thee.' '^ Always holding 
to God's hand, directly he will become 
strong enough to walk with approxi- 
mate perfection the way of Christ. 
His imitation will become perfect, 
even though his life continues to be 
imperfect. 

The Christian, to command the 
favor of God and the world's re- 
spect, must '' walk worthy of the vo- 
cation wherewith he is called." He 

29 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

who can truthfully say, " For me to 
live is Christ/' will have much to do 
with the shaping of the world's des- 
tiny. It is the earnest Christian's 
one purpose to exalt Christ his Lord 
and Master, by doing the things 
which He commands, and His com- 
mandments are not grievous. 

It is of moment to inquire what 
are some of the prominent traits 
making up Christ's character, bright 
jewels that shall shine in the Chris- 
tian's life, if he but walk in His 
steps. 

The most noteworthy characteris- 
tic of His life is love. The Savior 
of men was clothed with love as with 
a garment. It illumined His charac- 

30 



WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY f 

ter and revealed in Him '^ the fairest 
among ten thousand." Love was the 
sun that poured forth its warm rays 
upon the stars of sympathy, mercy, 
kindness, and other bright attri- 
butes, radii of His great heart. His 
was a love unselfish, warm, gener- 
ous, unbounded. It did not include 
His friends only; with strong arms 
and tender it embraced the world. 
He loved His enemies. Marvel of 
divine grace! Beautiful love! In 
Him, ^4t suffered long and was 
kind." ^^It endured" as only love 
can endure, and men beheld Him 
with amazement. If unselfish serv- 
ice be the expression of love. His 



31 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

love was measured by the highest 
standard. 

The Christian's course is plain, — 
it is a path of love. " By this shall 
all men know that ye are my disci- 
ples, that ye love one another .'' The 
life whose center does not burn and 
glow with love is not the Christ-like 
life. But love does not cease to flow 
when it pours its tides into the 
church as the river emptying itself 
into the sea, but its circuit is the 
world. And as the tides of the ocean 
flow from shore to shore, so love 
courses through the sea of humanity 
to its uttermost limits. '^ If ye love 
them which love you, what reward 
have ye?" — sinners do the same. 

82 



WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY r 

The differentiating point in the 
Christian's life is, that he can love 
his enemies and do good to them that 
despitefuUy nse him. 

This love " seeketh not its own but 
another's wealth/' Our Lord '' went 
about doing good." What a busy 
life was His, leading not to worldly 
success and fame, but ignominy and 
a crown of thorns. 

After love came obedience. How 
beautifully He lived the doctrine 
that He came to do the will of Him 
that sent Him. Following Christ 
will lead us to the blessed state of 
perfect obedience. ^^He became 
obedient unto death, even the death 
of the cross." Think you that it was 

33 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

easy for Christ to crucify His own 
will and lay down ambition? I tell 
you nay. He learned obedience by 
obeying. 

The submissive Christian life is 
worth striving for; it is a field of 
joy with no thorn to pierce one's 
feet; a sea of pleasure with no 
stream of regret coursing into it; 
sunshine without a shadow. To 
obey Christ means, sometimes, suf- 
fering as the world would have it, 
but to the Christian it is a crown of 
rejoicing. In the vision of angels at 
God's right hand, doubtless, Stephen 
was insensible to the stones that beat 
out his life. Polycarp, in the loving 
embrace of his all-sufl&cient Lord, 



34 



WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY? 

welcomed the flames as a chariot 
of fire to sweep his redeemed soul 
into the royal presence above. The 
happy Christian is the obedient one. 
The stream of influence for good 
is the life, not the profession. What 
a miserable and unfaithful commen- 
tary upon what it means to be a 
Christian are many Christian lives ! 
The reproaches heaped upon Christ 
and Christianity have come mostly 
through the unfaithfulness of pro- 
fessing Christians. Voltaire's attack 
upon the Christ was on this ground. 
No one can find aught to object to 
in the genuine, but the subterfuge 
subjects our cause to constant at- 
tacks. 

35 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

The real Christian's life calls 
forth the world's admiration. The 
end of the conflict will come when 
the followers of Christ live np to 
their profession. Under present 
conditions, much of onr time is taken 
up with apologizing for the failings 
of those who wear the name of 
Christ but do not bear the cross. 
The Christian is ^^ Christ's epistle, 
known and read of all men." 

The world needs the gospel trans- 
lated into hnman lives, and its esti- 
mate of that gospel and of its Giver 
is what it thinks of those who repre- 
sent it. ^^Ye are the light of the 
world." "Walk as children of the 
light." "For this purpose was the 

36 



WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY f 

son of God manifested, that he might 
destroy the works of the devil." 
Have these works been destroyed in 
you? If not, upon what ground do 
you base your Christian hope? 

Again, if we would follow Christ 
we must fill our lives with toil. He 
is the towering example of industry 
in all the annals of time. His 
Father sent Him upon the great mis- 
sion of recreating the world and re- 
constructing society. He set about 
this work very early in life. At 
twelve years of age He was found in 
the temple teaching the doctors of 
the law, and in answer to a question 
from His mother replied, " Wist ye 
not that I must be about my Father^s 

37 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

business ? '^ When He had reached 
His full development in wisdom and 
stature, His work broadly speaking 
was only begun. " He that believeth 
on me, the work that I do shall he 
do also; and greater works than 
these shall he do.'^ The greater 
work under the power and guidance 
of the Holy Spirit is to be done by 
His followers. The field then was 
white unto the harvest and the labor- 
ers were few. The field is larger 
now than ever before, reaching 
" from the rivers to the ends of the 
earth,'' and still the reapers are few. 
We need more laborers, but the 
greater need is that those who pro- 
fess to love Christ shall be more in- 

38 



WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY r 

dustrious in gathering the precious 
sheaves. There is a vast amount of 
work being done by the church, but 
it is doubtful whether our methods 
are what they should be. In cities 
and countries alike the preachers 
preach reform and the people talk 
reform, and societies without num- 
ber have been organized to carry out 
the Utopian ideas of would-be re- 
formers. And the devil laughs at 
our bungling efforts. 

The first thing necessary is that 
men's hearts shall be right. We can- 
not hope to purify the stream until 
the fountain is cleansed. " Out of 
the heart are the issues of life.'' So- 
ciety is foul and loathsome because 

39 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

men's hearts have not been purified. 
Christ did not spend His time in dis- 
coursing about the condition of so- 
ciety. " Eepent ye, for the kingdom 
of heaven is at hand/' was the key- 
note of His ministry. 

This, then, is the great work of the 
Christian Church — to lead men to 
Christ; and nothing, however good 
in itself, should be allowed to divert 
us from this idea. A living, work- 
ing church, impressed with the tre- 
mendous responsibility of its po- 
sition in relation to redeeming the 
world, is the great need of our day 
of grace. 

^^All whose life has been raised 
from the region of selfishness and 

40 



WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY f 

pride to the higher realm of love and 
life in God, — who have found in that 
profound conversion, together with 
the pardon and oblivion of their past, 
the gem of a higher life, — of the 
perfect, and by consequence, eternal 
life, are the true religious posterity 
of Christ ; they reproduce His spirit, 
continue His work, and are depend- 
ent upon Him, and as like Him relig- 
iously as are the descendants of an 
ancestor whose blood and whose life 
have not ceased for an instant to 
flow in their veins." 



41 



HOW TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN. 



4B 



" Christianity as Christ taught it is the 
truest philosophy of life ever spoken. But let 
us be quite sure when we speak of Christian- 
ity that we mean Christ's Christianity. Other 
versions are either caricatures or exaggerations 
or misunderstandings, or short-sighted or sur- 
face readings. For the most part their at- 
tainment is hopeless, and the result wretched. 
But I care not who the person is, or through 
what vale of tears he has passed, or is about 
to pass, — there is a new life for him along this 
path." — Henry Drummond. 



44 



n. 

HOW TO BECOME A CHRIS- 
TIAN. 



Chkistianity is of such conse- 
quence to man as to give it first 
place in importance of considera- 
tion. Political, sociological and in- 
ternational questions have mightily 
engaged the attention of the world's 
thinkers, and in their adjustment 
fierce battles have been fought, and 
the slain have fallen by the thou- 
sands, consecrating every land with 
their patriotic blood. 

Likewise, questions in philosophy 

45 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

and science have had their days, and 
battles royal have been waged over 
disputed points while the Christian 
people trembled in breathless silence, 
lest the world should be robbed of 
God, — as if man's unbelief could in 
any wise shake the foundations of 
Truth. But it will be conceded that 
the question which has had first 
place in the realm of thought, in all 
times, is that of man's relation to 
God. It has been the theme alike of 
prophet and apostle, philosopher, 
Assyriologist, Egyptologist, philolo- 
gist, historian, poet, and the rest. It 
has given impetus to research and 
investigation, and has been the in- 
spiration of culture. 

46 



HOW TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN 

The mystery of man's relation to 
the great First Cause, his Creator, 
has led to earnest investigation as 
to the claims of revealed religion, 
with reference to matter and mind, 
their origin and their destiny, and 
thus may the deduction of modern 
science and much of what we know 
of ancient history be considered as 
the product of such investigation. 

Revelation has come to man in a 
sealed book. To break the seal and 
become acquainted with the momen- 
tous facts it contains is to unlock the 
door of universal knowledge, cor- 
related and corroborated by it, and 
introduce man to himself, a creature 
endowed with such gifts and graces 

47 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

as entitle him to the distmction of 
being called the son of God. 

Naturally, when one discovers his 
true condition, he is appalled at the 
great distance that intervenes be- 
tween himself and God, notwith- 
standing He is not far from every 
one of ns ; having been brought nigh 
by the blood of Jesus Christ. And 
the Word, who was made flesh and 
dwelt among us, has become a me- 
dium of communication between God 
and His rebellious subjects. 

If anyone should deny to religion 
the first place in the minds of men, 
in the past, he will not be so un- 
thoughtful as to deny to Christianity 
the place of prime importance to- 

48 



HOW TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN 

day. '^The light of the world '^ is 
shining from the hilltops, and dark- 
ness has taken wings. Christ en- 
throned in literature and reigning in 
the lives of our chief rulers and first 
citizens is silently leading in a vic- 
torious battle to the conquest of the 
whole earth. Mahomet went forth 
to conquer with the sword, and he 
soon whipped into line a vast army ; 
but there was bloodshed and death 
and fearful carnage in the wake of 
his victorious march. A far greater 
conqueror is He who went forth, 
^' fair as the moon, clear as the sun, 
and terrible as an army with ban- 
ners,'' armed with the burning shafts 
of love, which wound but never kill. 

49 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

Silently He battles down the fortifi- 
cations erected against Him, then 
with loving hands He '^ binds up the 
broken-hearted, proclaims liberty to 
the captives. He gives unto them 
beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for 
mourning, the garment of praise for 
the spirit of heaviness.'' 

Thus silently, unostentatiously, 
did Christ go forth, ^^ conquering 
and to conquer,'' and the slain of the 
Lord no man can number. The in- 
fluence of His life and ideals is far- 
reaching. The genial, life-giving 
rays of His love have smitten the 
dark monster of Africa, and like a 
wounded gladiator he writhes and 
struggles to live, but the death-damp 

50 



HOW TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN 

is upon his brow. China, noted for 
its conservatism and hoary with su- 
perstition, has acknowledged the 
superiority of our religion by seek- 
ing admission to the comity of 
Christian nations. And there is 
'' no speech nor language,'' no nation 
or tribe, but upon which Christianity 
has made its impress. The curtain 
of night is lifting, and the light of 
the greatest life of the ages is sweep- 
ing on to bedeck the world with its 
brilliant hues. Christianity is rap- 
idly becoming the great world- 
power. 

The student of human nature and 
of history who has fearlessly looked 
into his own sinful, perverted, will- 

51 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

ful heart, and become acquainted 
with the social conditions of the 
world, will have need of neither 
preacher nor prophet to convince 
him that the flood-tide of sin has 
swept the whole earth, depositing 
the germs of sin and death in every 
life. '' The Lord looked down from 
heaven upon the children of men, to 
see if there were any that did under- 
stand, that did seek God. They are 
all gone aside, they are all together 
become filthy; there are none that 
doeth good, no, not one.'' Such is 
the natural condition of man. '^ All 
we, like sheep, have gone astray ; we 
have turned every one to his own 
way." The history of nations is a 

52 



5 



HOW TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN 

terrifying narrative of man's apos- 
tasy from God, with tragic stories of 
sorrow and suffering and war and 
death. The drama of the prodigal 
son has been enacted upon the broad 
stage of life by the millions, and that 
story has become the most familiar 
one in literature, because it is true 
to nature. Unhappily, many who 
appear in the first scene are lost in 
the far-away country, and although 
clothed in the rags of their own un- 
righteousness and reduced to want 
and shame, do not appear in the sec- 
ond act, where a loving and forgiv- 
ing father puts his gracious arms 
about them and welcomes them back 
to the old paternal home, whose hos- 

53 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

pitable doors have never closed 
against the returning prodigal. 

The most rational thing for one to 
do is to seek the road that leads back 
to God and forgiveness. To regain 
the lost estates of friendship and 
commnnion with Him, in whose 
hands is the destiny of the worlds; 
to enter upon the heritage of the re- 
deemed of earth; to be stimulated 
with the cheering promises of the 
sinless home beyond the stars, — 
this is a purpose and an ambition 
worthy of the noblest child of man. 

This writer holds to the opinion 
that the great majority of the race 
are conscious of their lost condition, 
and fain would find Him after whom 

54 



HOW TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN 

their souls long as a homesick youth 
would stand again in the shadow of 
his old home. 

Why then do they not return in 
greater numbers? The lost sheep 
seldom finds its way back to the 
fold except upon the bosom of the 
kindly shepherd. A lost man is well- 
nigh as helpless. Bewildered and 
confused, if he undertakes to follow 
his own judgment he moves in a 
circle, making na progress in the 
direction he would go. Unless some 
one comes to the rescue directly, the 
lost man will lose hope and die in 
despair. It was for lost men that 
Christ the Good Shepherd left the 
"ninety and nine,^' that He might 

55 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

find them and bring them back to the 
Father. Thank God ! '^ He came to 
seek and to save that which was 
lost." He knew that man could not 
find his way back to God alone, 
through the wilderness of doubt and 
over the wreck and ruin of his sinful 
life. And '^ of the people, there were 
none mighty to save." And He knew 
that no man could ^^come unto the 
Father " but by Him ; therefore the 
Son of God spent His precious life 
seeking men. Just before the time 
came for Him to enter into His 
glory. He committed the ^^word of 
reconciliation" unto His servants, 
and said unto them : '^ Go ye into all 
the world and preach the gospel to 

56 



HOW TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN 

every creature," ^^And lo ! I am with 
you alway.'' He still seeks. In the 
prayers and tears and earnest plead- 
ings of His church, the tender voice 
of Christ is calling : '' Come unto 
Me, all ye that are weary and heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest.'' 

The world is full of ^^ weary and 
heavy-laden'' souls, crushed almost 
to death beneath the burdens of life, 
and many of them would be happy 
to find Him who stoops to take upon 
Himself the cares of His stricken 
children. And the Savior is all the 
while yearning to open His great 
loving heart and send forth its liv- 
ing stream into thirsty souls whose 
flowers have withered and whose 

57 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

fragrance has been lost upon the des- 
ert air. Then, does not the real diffi- 
culty lie with those nnder-shepherds 
whom Christ has constituted " over- 
seers of the flock of God '^ ? 

There has been so much disputing 
about non-essentials, the " how '' and 
the ^^ wherefore/' that the one thing 
needful has been lost to the view. 
The church has wasted a great deal 
of energy and lost many opportuni- 
ties and confused many earnest souls 
by reason of its unnecessary dispu- 
tations over questions which can 
never be settled. The note that 
should ring loud and clear from 
every pulpit is Christ. " Behold the 
lamb of God who taketh away the sin 

58 



HOW TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN 

of the world/' All Christians are 
agreed that ^^ there is none other 
name under heaven given among 
men, whereby we must be saved/' 
but the name of Christ. 

It is one of the greatest misfor- 
tunes to which the church has fallen 
heir, that we are not also agreed as 
to the condition of pardon and ac- 
ceptance with God. He would be a 
great benefactor to the cause of 
Christianity who could propose a 
statement of what one must do to be 
saved which would be satisfactory to 
the whole church and thus become a 
universal creed. The world takes no 
notice of the difference of opinion on 
other points in theology, but de- 

59 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

mauds and has a right to demand 
that there shall be no divergent 
teaching upon this question. Un- 
speakable harm has resulted to our 
cause because its representatives are 
saying: "Lo! here is Christ." 
^^ Lo ! there is Christ." And the peo- 
ple are waiting until the Church has 
indisputably located its Lord and 
taken its own bearings. Suppose 
some one were lost in a deep forest, 
and a number of rescuers seeking 
him should come upon him from dif 
ferent directions. Suppose, further, 
that each one of the rescuing party 
would say: ^^The way to safety is 
the way by which I came, and if you 
shall go any other way you shall be 

60 



HOW TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN 

lost. My way is the only way.'' 
Under such circumstances the lost 
man would become more confused 
than ever before, and would be un 
willing to intrust himself to any of 
the guides. Such now seems to be 
the condition of the Church. The 
fact is, however, we are at one touch- 
ing the great fundamentals of relig- 
ion when we come to a correct under- 
standing of the terminology used. 
But the world does not look at it 
from our view-point. So, Christians 
have gained the unenviable reputa- 
tion of being divided among them- 
selves. The world does not know 
whom to follow or where to go, and 
hence rather than risk a journey full 

61 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

of uncertainty, men choose to remain 
in the sinful life. 

Preaching our perspective of the 
great doctrines of Salvation, as 
though our views were the gospel, 
has turned men's attention from the 
great Theme to trifles in comparison. 
Those desirous of becoming Chris- 
tians, however, should be willing 
that any good man who has explored 
the regions might point him to 
Christ. And on the other hand, let 
no man, no church, forbid others to 
show to the lost the way, lest he be 
found fighting against God. 

There are some precious truths to 
which the attention of the unsaved 
should be constantly directed. The 

62 



HOW TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN 

first one is God's attitude toward 
them. It is a relation of deepest 
solicitude, stirring His great heart 
with feelings of tenderest sympathy 
and prof oundest love. Some seem to 
think, and the purport of not a little 
preaching is, that God is so con- 
cerned for the welfare of the saints 
that he devotes but little thought to 
sinners, as though Christ's protesta- 
tion that He ^^came not to call the 
righteous but sinners to repentance,'' 
and ^^I am not sent but to the lost 
sheep of the house of Israel," did not 
stamp such a position as contradic- 
tory and false. It was His love for 
sinful men that gave to the world 
Jesus Christ. The Savior, God's in- 



63 



THE MAKING OF A QHBI8TIAN ^ 

estimable gift, was His challenge to 
lost men to return to Him and pour 
out at His feet love's libation. 
Truly, ^^all the day long hath He 
stretched forth His hands unto a dis- 
obedient and gainsaying people.'^ 
It is a dire misfortune to be away 
from God, lost to His love and blind 
to the beauties of His nature, but 
how encouraging the thought that 
He wishes us to return to Him, al- 
though diseased, wounded and sin- 
ful, and such a welcome as shall 
cause rejoicing among the angels, 
awaits us upon our return. ^^ Re- 
turn unto me, and I will return unto 
you.'' '' He willeth not the death of 
any, but that all should repent." 

64 



HOW TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN 

Never was there a mother so anxious 
to embrace her child as God has 
shown Himself to receive sinners and 
bestow upon them the kiss of His 
forgiveness ! Dear friend, God wills 
that you should be saved. He has 
given you a glorious Substitute to 
suffer in your stead, and hath sent 
forth His Spirit into your heart to 
convict you of your sins and your 
need of a Savior. And that same 
blessed influence is leading you to 
seek the Father^ s face, resplendent 
with the light of love. God waits, 
waits for your coming. His loving 
heart running over with blessings 
for you. Every word of God lays 
emphasis upon that word without 

65 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

which the gospel would be a supreme 
failure — come. ''He is more will- 
ing to give the Holy Spirit to them 
that ask Him than an earthly parent 
is to give good gifts unto his chil- 
dren/' If God be willing to receive 
you, and although you doubt every- 
thing besides, do not doubt the truth 
of this statement, why not now in 
loving obedience return to Him? 
It is for you to decide. ^^"Whoso- 
ever will may come/' " Come unto 
me, all ye ends of the earth, and be 
ye saved, said the Lord.'' 

The second consideration is 
Christ's ability to save '' All who 
come unto God by Him." Your 
friends would do for you all that 

66 



HOW TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN 

Christ offers to do, were they able, 
but their arms are too short to bring 
Salvation to you. Christ is not only 
willing, but ^^He is able to do ex- 
ceeding abundantly unto you, above 
all that you can ask or think/' 

But you have refused to believe 
He is all-powerful, because the 
"kingdom of God cometh not with 
observation,'' because, forsooth, 
"man by nature cannot find out 
God." The objects of faith, if you 
will stop to think, are as real as the 
things of sense. When some wise 
scientist has succeeded in defining 
ether, time, space, life, understand- 
ingly, then you may with some rea- 
son reject the gospel of faith because 

67 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

it cannot be absolutely demonstrated 
to human reason. 

We have indubitable testimony to 
His power to save. The history of 
His earthly ministry — a history as 
well authenticated as that of Julius 
Caesar, according to one of the fore- 
most New Testament scholars, Dr. 
Eene Gregory, of Leipsic Univer- 
sity—bears witness to His power not 
only to heal the sick and raise the 
dead, but also to transform men's 
lives. It is a well-known fact that 
the Fathers also support this con- 
tention. Some of them speak of hav- 
ing seen those who had come under 
His divine power. But more than 
this, millions of redeemed souls dur- 

68 



HOW TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN 

ing Christian centuries have lived 
and died in the assurance that Christ 
had ^^ power on earth to forgive 
sins." And there are in the world 
to-day an almost innumerable com- 
pany testifying to the same effect, 
and ready to seal the testimony with 
their blood. 

Some one may say, "I have no 
doubt as to God's willingness that I 
should be saved, nor of Christ's abil- 
ity to do His work,'' but ^^ What must 
I do to be saved?" That is a mo- 
mentous question, and God grant 
that it may quiver on every man's 
lips who reads these pages, the ex- 
pression of an earnest soul seeking 
the Savior. One word will answer 

69 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

the question: Surrender. Surren- 
der to Christ your life, your will, 
everything. Just as you are, with- 
out one plea, with no vain effort to 
make yourself presentable, with no 
apology. Surrender! ^^Come out 
from the world and be ye separate, 
saith the Lord, and I will receive 
you and be a Father to you and ye 
shall be my sons and daughters, 
saith the Lord Almighty.'' That 
means a surrender of self, of 
friends, of the world, everything 
that touches your life from whatso- 
ever angle. 

But what does surrender mean! 
By that simple act the unsaved ac- 
knowledge God's sovereignty and 

70 



HOW TO BE CO ME A CHRISTIAN 

His right to loyal service from His 
subjects. It is here that man be- 
comes conscious of the exceeding sin- 
fulness of sin. He sees himself de- 
pendent upon God for life and 
breath and all things, a pensioner 
upon Him whose bounty he has not 
acknowledged and whose will he has 
ever disregarded. Ashamed of his 
ingratitude, sorrow, like sea-billows, 
sweeps over his awakened soul, and 
he cries in despair, ^^ Unclean! un- 
clean ! '' 

This state of ^^ Godly sorrow" 
leads to repentance unto life, also in- 
volved in the fact of surrender. 
Suppose you have wronged your 
best friend, by doing things you 

71 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

knew would displease him and living 
in such a way as to reflect discredit 
upon his good name. Some one in- 
forms you that your friend is 
grieved, and you think it all over 
and feel very sorry for your unwar- 
ranted conduct. You go to him and 
with tender heart and tearful eye 
make acknowledgments, aad promise 
to be faithful to him in the future. 
That is repentaiice. It is repentance 
in action. And would not anyone 
forgive under such circumstances ? 

With even greater assurance may 
the sinner approach unto Grod. God 
hates sin, not sinful men. ^^ Sin only 
hath separated between me and my 
people.'' If sin is forsaken and the 

72 



HOW TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN 

sinner goes to the Father with 
broken heart and earnest purpose to 
live a new life, do you not know that 
he shall be forgiven? ^^Let the 
wicked forsake his way, and the un- 
righteous man his thoughts; and let 
him return unto the Lord, and He 
will have mercy upon him ; and to 
our Grod, for He will abundantly 
pardon.'' To those who have ex- 
pected to be called upon to do '' some 
gr^at thing," the way to God is so 
simple as to make them skeptical of 
results. 

A willingness to surrender also 
bespeaks a willingness to obey 
Christ. To enter into the Kingdom 
of God is to voluntarily assume its 

73 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

obligations and become obedient to 
its laws; and those who would be- 
come chief in that kingdom must be- 
come ^^ servants of all.'^ Obedience 
is the first law of the new life, and it 
must become a fixed principle in the 
new disciple's heart while yet upon 
the threshold of the Kingdom of 
God. But this should present no 
barrier, and will not to the man who 
sees a vision of our Lord and King 
and hears the divine voice. How 
willingly Paul obeyed when he saw 
the King in His beauty. Phillips 
Brooks, the prince of preachers, in 
speaking of Paul's conversion, says : 
^^Paul recognized the vision. He 
says he became obedient to it. Dear 

74 



HOW TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN 

friends, that is the truth I want to 
take to myself and have you take to 
yourselves. The truth that the gov- 
ernment of this world is all by obe- 
dience ; that it depends upon what a 
man obeys, what a man is. Per- 
sonal obedience is the Christian life ; 
personal salvation by One who has 
done for us that which has not 
merely won the right to demand of 
us that we should obey Him, but has 
also shown us what He has done, — 
how worthy He is of exacting our 
obedience. The vision, then, of the 
Christian life, it seems to me, — 
that thing upon which the Chris- 
tian fastens his eye and which he 
follows, and which leads him on 



75 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

through all the rich and beautiful 
ranges of Christian growth, the 
vision that first moves him, — is 
Christ his Master, and his own life 
completely obedient to Christ. We 
ask ourselves again the question: 
What is it to be a Christian? How 
shall I become a Christian? It is 
simply the new life that comes to a 
man when he has put himself in 
personal obedience to the Master; 
and in obedience to that Master there 
opens to him all the richness of the 
new life, and in this obedience man 
watches the character of Him whom 
he is obeying." 

A brilliant lawyer came to the 
writer at the close of a service of 

76 



HOW TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN 

unusual power some years ago, and 
said: ^^I would give all I possess 
for the Christian's faith and hope, 
but it is incomprehensible to me." 
The story of the man as he told it 
to me touched my heart. His par- 
ents had fed his mind from child- 
hood on infidel literature, and his 
whole life became saturated with 
skepticism. But it did not satisfy 
him, as it does not satisfy the crav- 
ings of anyone. With no faith to 
begin with, he agreed to comply 
with the conditions of pardon as 
far as possible, by giving up all 
sin and doing right to the best of 
his ability. Well, it was not a week, 
not a day, until he came to me with 

77 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

a face glowing as the morning, and 
said, " The clouds have gone, and I 
understand it now/' He had seen 
God's face with the eyes of the pure 
in heart, and had become obedient 
to the heavenly vision. 

Surrender implies faith. A faith 
that justifies with God, and brings 
peace. Of course, ^^ He that cometh 
to God'' in confession must believe 
that He is, and that He is a rewarder 
of them that diligently seek Him. 
And thus far faith precedes surren- 
der. But when one has done all, he 
must believe that God accepts him 
for His child. God invites you to 
come to Him. He tells you what 
coming to Him involves. Now all 

78 



HOW TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN 

this has been complied with. Are 
you accepted? Faith answers in the 
afl&rmative, because God has prom- 
ised and with joyous heart confes- 
sion is made unto Salvation. 

Do not doubt, do not hesitate, if 
you have not made peace with God. 
The Father's hands are stretched out 
to you, and our Lord has said, '' Him 
that cometh to me, I will in no wise 
cast ouf 



79 



WHY BECOME A CHRISTIAN? 



81 



" A Christian man is higher and deeper 
and broader than other men are. He is more 
fully developed in all his capacities, both for 
joy and sorrow. Christ had in himself all the 
nobleness of man and all the gentleness of 
woman. He has vaster capacities of suffering 
than other men. Stoical indifference to pain is 
evidence of a coarse nature. To feel, and yet 
to do and dare, is to be truly noble." — R, 8. 
McArthur, 

" A Christian is the highest style of man." 
— Pope. 

" It is a very lofty thing to be a Christian, 
for a Christian is a man who is restoring God's 
likeness to his character." — F. W, Robertson. 



82 



III. 

WHY BECOME A CHRISTIAN? 



God designed happiness for man, 
and the provisions He has made for 
him, both temporal and spiritual, 
are commensurate with his utmost 
needs. To live in harmony with 
God's plans is to realize as nearly 
as possible the ideal life in this 
world. If we shall believe the 
Hedonistic philosophy, happiness 
should be sought as the chief good 
and for its own sake. Acknowledg- 
ing the evil of this doctrine, yet it 
must be admitted that happiness is 

83 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

a good very much to be desired. 
The whole world, each individual in 
his own way, is seeking it. And who 
would not sell all that he hath to buy 
that precious commodity, the great- 
est of all blessings? 

We have known enough of happi- 
ness to appreciate its value, and we 
are aware also of the very thing that 
has robbed us of its companionship. 
Sin is the thief who has invaded our 
hearts while we slept, and left us to 
awake to weep. The consciousness 
of sin has robbed all of us of much 
happiness and peace. It has broken 
heartstrings and filled human lives 
with discordant music. It has de- 
stroyed the rhythm of the Universe, 

84 



WHY BECOME A CHRISTIAN? 

How many hours and days of 
darkness and weeping have been 
yours on account of sin ! The heart 
has ached and wept and bled, as rest- 
less days and sleepless nights have 
come and gone. Have you not at 
such times longed for the innocent 
days of childhood? Have you not 
sighed times without number, ^^Back- 
ward, turn backward, oh! time in 
your flight. Make me a child again, 
just for to-night'^? Who has not 
said, ^^If my life were to be lived 
over again, it would not be stained 
and warped and burdened with those 
sins that have occasioned me so 
much grief? 

But these awful sins are upon us, 

85 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

and our souls are like the troubled 
sea. We cannot cleanse ourselves; 
we cannot atone for the past. And 
so there is no happiness for us, un- 
less we shall find it in Christ, who 
alone ^' can take away the sin of the 
world." Can He bring back to one 
the peace and joy of the gone-by 
days? Can He bring into my trou- 
bled life the calm of heaven ? Yea, 
He can. 

Then were this not a good reason 
why you should at once become a 
Christian, — if Christ will bring to 
you what you have lost, filling your 
life with sunshine and flowers and 
heavenly symphony? The experi- 
ence of universal man warrants the 

86 



WHY BECOME A CHRISTIAN? 

dogmatic assertion that happiness 
cannot be found but in Christ. 
Wealth, prestige, learning, social 
eclat, — these do not bring it. It is 
the child of God, in whatsoever cir- 
cumstances, who obeys, trusts and 
believes, whose life is peaceful and 
sweet like innocency slumbering in 
the loving arms of maternity. 

But for what other considerations 
than one's own happiness and peace 
should one give up all sin and be- 
come a child of God? 

Because Christianity is designed 
to destroy all that is bad and to de- 
velop every good in man. Can you 
conceive of anything that could be 
of such utility and worth to the 

87 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

world? Can you think of anything 
that would be of such priceless value 
to yourself? Who would not rather 
be free from sin and the susceptibil- 
ity of yielding to temptations, with 
noble impulses urging him forward, 
with courage for every battle and a 
crown for every victory, than the 
richest gift within the power of any 
man to confer? 

This is what Christ offers you, — 
victory over the world, over sin, and 
over self. This is yours by reason 
of the new life He gives you. No 
man can achieve it for himself. It is 
not in man to change his own heart. 
Often you will hear some one say 
with great confidence, — all the more 

88 



WHY BECOME A CHRISTIAN f 

because he has never tried it, — some 
one addicted to a sinful habit, " Oh ! 
I could quit it if I would." But does 
he quit it? Can anyone by his own 
power have done with sin and array 
himself as a paragon of heavenly 
virtues ? Can the leopard change his 
spots or the Ethiopian his skin! 
Then the greatest tragedy of the 
ages need not to have occurred. 

No one can reach his zenith with- 
out Christ. The Christ influence 
brings out the best and the finest 
points in a life which otherwise must 
lie undeveloped, unseen. What cul- 
ture is to the physical and intellectual 
man, Christ is to the spiritual. The 
jewels that shine and attract in a 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

life are set in the spiritual hemi- 
sphere, and must be shone upon by 
that Son whose glory fills the earth 
and the skies, otherwise their luster 
will be but dim. We come into this 
world diamonds in the rough. Not 
until Christ has found us and broken 
off the rough corners and polished 
us into beauty can we shine in the 
luster of which we are capable. 
Christianity is the supreme and final 
test of character. Men discouraged 
and ruined by sin, and upon whom 
every means of reform has been 
tried but to fail, under the influence 
of Christianity have attained to 
royal manhood, and lived lives of 
great usefulness to the world. 

90 



WHY BECOME A CHRISTIAN f 

In a certain home was a slovenly 
boy. The good mother exhausted 
her art in trying to bring that youth 
to a sense of his sad neglect of 
himself. It all seemed to no avail. 
Finally, without any apparent cause, 
the boy began to comb his hair 
and brush his clothes. The family 
was astonished. The boy became the 
gentleman of the household. The se- 
cret of this wonderful change was 
that the boy had fallen in love. It 
was the influence of an ideal. Just 
such a power, only more marvelous, 
will Christ wield over the life that 
comes under his personal influencCo 

Again, sin degrades one in his 
own estimation and causes him to 

91 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

forfeit the respect of Ms friends. 
Before the world has known of the 
wrongdoer^s progress in evil and has 
rewarded him with a frown, the 
wrongdoer himself has felt the 
shame of sin and has hung his head 
like the wounded flower on the road- 
side. No one ever thinks so well of 
himself after stooping to a sinful 
act. The progress toward the un- 
happy state of degradation is rapid, 
and he who begins the descent ever 
so slowly will find himself directly 
beyond hope, with the wings of de- 
spair overspreading his future. 
There is no condition more hopeless 
than that of the individual who has 
lost self-respect. And every one 

92 



1 



WHY BECOME A CHRISTIAN f 

who persists in sin will come to that 
unhappy sequel. What a sad picture 
does he present who has lost the 
sense of shame in evil doing ! Have 
you not oftentimes seen some one in 
the gutter, indifferent to public opin- 
ion, who a few years before would 
have blushed for a month over such 
a delinquency? How rapidly sin 
bears one down to the earth! 

As the sinner loses respect for 
himself, his friends, too, are losing 
confidence. Life is a torture without 
friends. Why will one persist in a 
course of action which will rob him 
of the dearest boon to mortals given? 

A popular man was elected to 
Congress. He was given an over- 

93 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

whelming vote. His majority was 
the largest ever given to any man in 
the district. For two years he gave 
himself up to vice, disgracing him- 
self and insulting his constituency. 
He lost self-respect, his fall was ter- 
rible, and the people still mourn for 
him. It was the wages of sin. 

But perhaps the sadder thought is 
that the sinner degrades himself in 
the sight of God, '^ who is of too pure 
eyes to behold iniquity." If we 
should be concerned about what men 
think of us, should we not be much 
more anxious to have the smile of 
God's approval, and if we have His 
approval we shall have universal re- 
spect. With the consciousness of 

94 



WHY BECOME A CHRISTIAN? 

His good pleasure, we may be happy 
although all our friends forsake us. 

Besides all this, sin disqualifies for 
places of responsibility and leader 
ship. Every community is in need 
of strong men to lead out in various 
enterprises, and every community 
has men who are capable in every 
way except they stand aloof from 
Christianity. The church is the rec- 
ognized channel of usefulness, and 
he who repudiates the church cuts 
off the arm of usefulness he would 
extend to the world. 

One of the greatest crimes for 
which we must account is misdi- 
rected influence. '' He who is not for 
me is against me," said Christ. To 

95 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

disqualify oneself for service to 
Christ is to qualify oneself for serv- 
ice to the devil. It is painful to me 
that in every place some of the 
brightest, broadest and most liberal 
men stand in the way of religious 
and moral progress, when as leaders 
they could mold the sentiment of 
large circles. 

But losing sight of all other rea- 
sons, the fact that sin leads men 
into trouble and difficulty is strong 
enough argument for giving it up 
altogether. Christianity is the only 
safeguard to virtue, honor, and a 
happy life. 

Sin has filled the world with tears 
and heartaches and death. It has 

96 



WHY BECOME A CHRISTIAN f 

crowded jails, penitentiaries, and 
almshouses. It has broken up homes 
and wrecked mighty nations. It has 
been the source of all earthly woe. 
Then why will men be led by the 
devil captive at his will, when it 
means loss, ruin, to do it? When 
one plunges into sin, let him bid 
farewell to happiness and hope and 
heaven. 

Give it up ! Give it up now ! Sin 
only is between you and the secret of 
a happy life. 

Hark! Voices from the past are 
calling to you. There is the voice of 
mother-love, full of tears and ten- 
derness. The voices of dear friends 
long since gone to their reward, re- 

97 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

minding you of childhood's inno- 
cence and sweet dreams. The voice 
of God calling you to account for 
promises and vows unbept and for a 
character torn down by vicious hab- 
its ; aad voices earnest and insistent 
from out the tomb of buried hopes 
and joys. All these and others are 
reminding you of duty and crying in 
your ears, Do not forget! Do not 
forget ! 

" Oh, ' Dinna forget! ' How it rings in our ears 
A spur to our joys, a font to our tears — 
When we meet, when we part, when we frolic 

or fret, 
It never escapes us, this ' Dinna forget ! ' 
The maid to her lover, she whispers it sly, 
The mother to daughter, who bids her good- 
bye; 
And all our engagements, until they are met, 
Need aye the reminder — now, ' Dinna forget ! ' 

98 



WHY BECOME A CHRISTIAN? 

"When to India or China, or some distant 

land, 
The youngster sets off, a toom purse in his 

hand, 
Hoping there some unlooked promotion to 

get — 
Each letter he opens bids ' Dinna forget ! ' 
And when home he returns at affection's com- 
mand, 
And in the auld kirk next his father must 

stand. 
Though his head 's carried high, yet his een 

they are wet, 
For his childhood comes back, saying ' Dinna 

forget! ' 

" When the good- wives together sit cracking 

their jokes, 
And clavers gang round 'mong the elderly folk, 
Sic a flood of remembrance on byegones they 

let, 
That the warl seems gone backwards in * Dinna 

forget! ' 
The minister preaches aye on the same text. 
The doctor's advice drills it into us next; 
And all through the week, should we owe a 

small debt. 
There 's a chiel wi' a simamons cries, ' Dinna 

forget! ' 



99 



LoFC. 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

" When we ^re weel and at work we still hear 

the refrain, 
When we ^re ill and want help, hark ! it turns 

up again; 
Whether sober or blythe, in a rage or a pet, 
There 's no getting rid of this * Dinna forget ! ' 
If it's gout in the toe, the twinge gets more 

keen, 
If an error in diet, the cheek looks more lean; 
If it 's losses at cards, or some wee foolish bet, 
Tenfold it annoys us — this 'Dinna forget!' 

" But if it 's a tale of distress that we hear. 
Or some spirit that 's broken, we 're bidden to 

cheer — 
On our errand of mercy from home let us set 
As if angels called after us, 'Dinna forget! ' 
Thus hearing, 'tis pleasant, and on it set store. 
For our good worthy forbears oft used it be- 
fore : 
A kindly word spoken with kindness is met. 
And while Scot speaks to Scot 'twill be — 
' Dinna forget ! ' " 



100 



THE TIME TO BECOME A CHRIS- 
TIAN. 



101 



" The flowers fade, the heart withers, man 
grows old and dies, the world lies down in the 
sepulchre of ages; but time writes no wrinkles 
on the brow of eternity/' — Bishop Heber, 



" The awfulness of sin comes not wholly 
from the fact that it is a disobedience of God, 
but as well from the certainty that it is a 
doing of violence to the soul itself, in the loss 
of power, the decay of love, the enfeebling of 
will, and the general atrophy of the nature. 
The thing affected by our indulgence is not 
alone the book of final judgment, but the pres- 
ent fabric of the spirit/' — Drummond. 



" How CAN a man learn to know himself 7 
By observation, never; but by action. Endea- 
vor to do your duty, and you shall know what 
is in you.'' — Ooethe. 



102 



IV. 

THE TIME TO BECOME A 
CHRISTIAN. 



If the revelation vouchsafed to us 
in the Scriptures be true, — and the 
centuries sufficiently attest that fact 
to those for whom these pages are 
especially designed, — it is clearly 
the duty of all whom God calls by 
His Spirit into His service, to act 
upon that call with all haste. Who 
does not know, by experience as well 
as from observation, that in relig- 
ious matters especially, nothing is 
to be gained by delay? To risk de- 
lay in any enterprise is to lose in 



103 



THE MAKINa OF A CHRISTIAN 

most instances. To him who be- 
lieves in God and the possibility of 
righting relationship with Him, 
there is but one thing to do — to 
seek Him at once, and with the whole 
heart enter upon service in His king- 
dom. ^^How shall we escape if we 
neglect so great salvation?'' The 
consequences of sin cannot be es- 
caped in this life. That ^^ the wages 
of sin is death/' monuments of 
wrecked and ruined lives in every 
community testify. Whatever one 
may think of the future, and the 
light the Bible throws upon it, of 
this the whole world is convinced, 
that the Scriptures are just in their 
interpretation of life. 

104 



THE TIME TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN 

As to whether there is a future 
state of immortality, there is no rea- 
sonable ground for doubt. Man has 
a religious nature. Is there no God 
to satisfy it? Romanes said that 
^^ the religious instinct points to God 
as its correlate." Everything in na- 
ture points to a correlate. The eye 
calls for light, and behold! the col- 
ors of the rainbow. The ear was 
made for sound, and lo! all nature 
is vocal with ravishing music. The 
earth produces abundantly of food 
to satisfy man's hunger. Springs 
break from the mountain-side, and 
cooling streams flow from ocean to 
ocean to satisfy man's thirst. Is 
there something to satisfy every call 

105 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

of man's nature except his religious 
instinct? If not, then truly, "man 
would be out of analogy with all 
nature/' 

Granting that there is a correlate 
to the religious nature, there is every 
reason to urge one not to neglect the 
acceptance of offered mercy. It is 
not necessary for one to be a great 
sinner to neglect God's Salvation. 
On the other hand, he may be a very 
good man socially and morally, 
whose only fault is a failure to con- 
fess before men, Christ as his 
Savior. And while he neglects he is 
drifting farther and farther away 
from God and his inclination to 



106 



THE TIME TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN 

yield to Christ is becoming less pro- 
nounced. 

Moreover, if God has a claim upon 
man, no one has a right to deny 
Him His own when He calls for it. 
'^Ye are not your own. Ye are 
bought with a price: therefore glo- 
rify God in your body and in your 
Spirit, which are His." He who will 
not heed God's call does it at the 
peril of his own soul. But consid- 
ering man's interest with reference 
to the present only, to obey God is 
the part of wisdom. To be a Chris- 
tian is to have a guarantee of the 
sweetest peace, the highest joy, and 
the most permanent happiness the 
world can offer. 

107 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

Then to have lived in harmony 
with God's plans is to make the best 
preparation for the future. It used 
to be thought among a certain class 
that religion was designed especially 
to prepare men to die, but happily 
we have come to look upon it as a 
preparation for life. He who lives 
best will be most ready for the fu- 
ture when the summons comes. It is 
obvious from the Scriptures that a 
man's standing in the next world 
shall be measured by the tenure and 
character of service he has rendered 
to his God on earth. 

If you will talk to Christian peo- 
ple, they will say to you invariably 
that their greatest regret is that they 

108 



THE TIME TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN 

did not begin the life of trust earlier. 
Then, why will not yon, without an- 
other moment's delay, surrender to 
Christ and enter upon His work? 

In a congregation of five hundred 
people during a revival service, a 
census of the audience was taken to 
find that only one of the number had 
decided for Christ after the age of 
fifty, and only ten after the age of 
twenty. 

You cannot afford to miss the joy 
of Christian living, nor can you af- 
ford to go to judgment without 
preparation to meet God in peace. 
So if you would make sure your in- 
terest, ^' Remember now thy Creator 
in the days of thy youth.'' How 

109 



THE MAKINa OF A CHRISTIAN 

much we need Christ in our lives! 
There are times when adversity 
sweeps over us. The savings of 
years of toil are gone in a moment's 
time; friends prove untrue; and 
health fails us. What is such a life 
alone? Ah ! it would be dreary, mis- 
erable and wretched enough. A 
poor old man whose friends had de- 
serted him, and who was dragging 
his life out in his gloomy home, 
without human companionship, was 
asked by a little girl who visited 
him, ^'^Are you not quite lonely 
here? '' And he answered, '' No, my 
child; for I am not alone." Alone 
on an island ; in a storm at sea ; far 
away from the fatherland, among 

110 



THE TIME TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN 

strangers ; cast off by one's family ; 
sick, old, helpless, hungry, cold, and 
ready to die, — in any condition, life 
is worth living with God's compan- 
ionship. 

Why not seek Christ for your 
friend? '' Why not now?'' He will 
be more than all this world to you. 
He is a great and inspiring Master. 
There are millions on earth to-day 
who had lost all hope of ever accom- 
plishing anything, but who became 
great and successful under the in- 
spiration of the Great Christ. Who 
has not been astounded beyond mea- 
sure at the outcome in some one 
who was a total wreck on the shores 

of time? If there be help and in- 
111 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

spiration in Christ's service, man 
should avail himself of it at the first 
opportunity. 

^Hio has not felt the need of some 
great motive, some power to propel 
and push one forward? A good and 
noble friend has inspired us with 
lofty ambitions, and under his 
wholesome influence we have striven 
for great things. But friends are 
inconstant ; nor do they furnish the 
high ideals which are necessary to 
excite our strongest efforts. The 
Man of Galilee possesses such qual- 
ities and attributes as to at once 
clothe Him with unparalleled in- 
fluence. His will has ever been su- 
preme among men, even if His 

112 



TEE TIME TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN 

supremacy has not always been ac- 
knowledged. He has not failed of 
accomplishing His purpose, even 
when all the forces in the Universe 
opposed Him. Such a character 
cannot only lead, but by virtue of its 
inherent force compels men to follow 
where He leads. 

The ideals of Christ inspire men 
to do their best in any of life's voca- 
tions. Not alone do the apostle and 
preacher swing out into atmosphere 
that stirs and thrills, led on by Him 
whose invisible presence quickens 
like an electric current, but the car- 
penter at the bench, the farmer at the 
plow, the smith at his forge, — these 
and all other sons of honest toil are 



113 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

within the charmed circle of His in- 
fluence, ^^who filleth all in all/' A 
great general will mold his soldiers 
into valiant men. The leader sets 
the pace at which those will walk 
who follow him. How proud we are 
of those brave noble men with whom 
we have had to do, and whose lives 
have so greatly influenced us ! How 
often we hear some one remark upon 
the influence some teacher or some 
associate wielded over him. 

The man who swayed the world as 
no other man has been able to do, 
and of whose supreme influence you 
may avail yourself, is the man 
Christ Jesus. 

Remember what wonderful things 

114 



THE TIME TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN 

the apostles accomplished, led on by 
His irresistible influence. See what 
they endured — what dangers and 
conflicts, what fiery trials. They 
were not men in the beginning of 
whom the world would expect much. 
But they became the central forces in 
the dawning day of Christian civili- 
zation. The genial rays of His pres- 
ence kissed into activity, force, and 
beauty, the sleeping germs of power 
in their lives, which otherwise would 
have passed like '' ships in the 
night." How brave, noble, purpose- 
ful, men have become who have seen 
the great light. 

He was a great man intellectually 
who saw the heavenly vision and 



115 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

heard the Christ-voice on the road 
from Jerusalem to Damascus. But 
the vision of the glorious Prince of 
Peace so transformed and inspired 
him, that, as Mark Antony said of 
Caesar, He became '' the greatest man 
[influentially] that ever lived in the 
tide of times,'^ — great in courage, 
power of endurance without a mur- 
mur, in purpose, in thought, whose 
vision was bounded only by the hori- 
zon of human needs, — great in life, 
beautiful and brave in death. Who 
in all times has turned his back upon 
his own race, shut his eyes to every 
earthly prospect, despised ambition 
when the world was waiting to 
shower honors upon him ; faced per- 

116 



4 1 



THE TIME TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN 

secution, stripes, imprisonment, per- 
ils without number, and said : ^^None 
of these things move me, cause me 
to diverge from my course,'^ who had 
not his eyes fixed upon " the bright 
and morning star.'' What the influ ■ 
ence of Christ did for the apostles 
and Paul, it did also for the con- 
fessors and martyrs who dared to 
quench fires of persecution and hell 
let loose upon them by Christ's per- 
secutors. 

He will be such an inspiration to 
you as will cause wounded hope to 
take wings. He will brush away the 
clouds and give you a clear vision of 
life and duty; He will re-baptize 
you with an holy and determined 

117 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

purpose, — and you will be able to 
stand before kings for his sake, for 
"the joy that is set before you." 
The most discouraged, sin-cursed 
soul in the world may assuredly hope 
to arise and triumph over evil, and 
build up his broken fortunes under 
the influence of the great and inspir- 
ing life of Christ. To ally oneself 
with Christ gives one conscious 
power, and thus is he made coura- 
geous for life's duties and trials. 
Naturally, man is timid and of fear- 
ful heart, and without sufficient re- 
sources to adjust himself to the va- 
rious conditions which he is called 
upon to meet. Life is a struggle up- 
hill. The hill we climb may be pov- 

118 



THE TIME TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN 

erty, bodily affliction, — tribulations 
of some other sort, danger. What- 
ever the course of our life, we need 
courage for every step. The way is 
all the time dangerous, dark and un- 
certain. Anyway, we need to know 
that we are not traveling alone, suf- 
fering without sympathy, battling 
single-handed. Christ affords one 
courage for life, whatever it may 
bring. 

Bearing his own burdens with 
never a whisper of good cheer in the 
times of gloom and misfortune, the 
poor, discouraged, bilious pessimist, 
storm-tossed and frightened by the 
breakers, real or imaginary, with 
wanton and cowardly hand takes his 

119 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

own life and sends his helpless soul 
rushing down the black stream of 
death, to be worse tempest-tossed 
upon the raging sea which knows no 
calm. 

The man of Christ is the man 
of beautiful, unfailing courage. 
Whether it be at home, when the 
wolf of hunger stands in his door; 
upon the mountain, where tempta- 
tion shakes the citadel of his man- 
hood as do the winds the sturdy 
oaks ; or upon the battle-field, where 
questions affecting the peace, pros- 
perity and happiness of his country 
are to be settled by blood ; or in the 
arena, where men are called upon to 
test their fidelity to truth, virtue, 

120 



THE TIME TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN 

honor, with their lives, — the man 
who has entered into relations with 
Christ stands undaunted, with eyes 
of fire, nerves of steel, and the cour- 
age of a lion. 

Savonarola never had lifted his 
gleaming sword against the power- 
ful and voluptuous de Medici, the 
god of Florence, but for the con- 
scious power of the living Christ 
that thrilled him like an electric bat- 
tery. Martin Luther never had gone 
to Rome to defy the pope, paragon 
of sacrilegious assumptions, defying 
armies of enemies and challenging 
devils, but for that undaunted cour- 
age which is the heritage of him who 



121 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

^^ endures as seeing Him who is in- 
visible.'^ 

If Christ infuses such courage, 
ought we not to seek Him first of 
all? Otherwise, the storm might 
come and find us unprepared to re- 
sist its giant force, some crucial hour 
when our strength and courage 
would fail us, and we go down to 
rise no more. If we might be per- 
mitted to hear the voices of those 
who have failed because they neg- 
lected the day of their opportunity, 
it would be like the roar of mighty 
waters. Have you not felt the need 
of this tonic? Now is the time to 
yield to Christ, and out of weakness 
you will be made strong. 

122 



THE TIME TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN 

Then the Christian life is an en- 
thusiastic life, filling one with a zeal 
for whatever he does that pushes 
him right to the front. There is no 
pabulum like religion, to feed the 
fires of energy. In this the day of 
rapid movements, he who succeeds 
must have the currents of enthusi- 
asm coursing all through him. 

Millions, Rip Van Winkle-like, are 
sleeping while the world moves on 
apace. The rattle of musketry, the 
hum of machinery, the sounds of the 
march of civilization, are powerless 
to awake them to passing opportuni- 
ties. Only He who broke the slum- 
bers of Bethany's son can awaken 
sleeping, dreaming humanity to the 

123 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

brilliancy and music and charm of 
the day of Grace. 

Have you lost interest in your 
work, your home, your friends, your 
country? In Christ you will find a 
new life in which your soul's possi- 
bility will stand out before you in 
such real and tangible form as to 
bring to you the snap, spring, vigor, 
buoyancy, and hope of happy, 
healthy childhood. 

Again, you should decide now, be- 
cause of the great loss of personal 
joy you are sustaining. No Master 
so faithfully rewards His servants 
as does Christ. Every day you will 
have value received for your invest- 
ment of labor. He who faithfully 

124 



THE TIME TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN 

serves Christ will hear the ^^Well 
done, thou good and faithful serv- 
ant/' every day, and shall sweetly 
experience the joy of his Lord. The 
reward for service is not kept back 
till the Christian enters upon the 
happy estates of heaven. So much is 
given him here that his cup runs 
over, and he feeds from the table 
prepared for him in the midst of his 
enemies. All this you are losing — 
you are missing the real honey and 
milk of life. 

Would that you might be im- 
pressed with the importance of a 
prompt decision. Do not risk an- 
other day. 



125 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

" Laid on Thy altar, our Lord divine, 

Accept my gift this day, for Jesus' sake! 
I have no jewels to adorn Thy shrine, 

Nor any world-famed sacrifice to make; 
But here I bring within my trembling hand 

This will of mine — a thing that seemeth 
small ; 
And Thou alone, O Lord, canst understand 

How, when I yield Thee this, I yield Thee all. 

" Hidden therein. Thy gracious gaze can see 
Struggles of passion, visions of delight — 
All that 1 have, or am, or fain would be — 
Deep love, fond hope, and longing infinite. 
It hath been wet with tears, and dimmed with 
sighs. 
Clenched in my grasp till beauty it hath 
none; 
Now, from Thy footstool where it vanquished 
lies, 
The prayer ascendeth. May Thy will be done. 

" Take it, Father, ere my courage fail, 

And merge it so in Thy own will, that e'en 
If in some desperate hour my cries prevail, 
And thou give back my gift, it may have 
been 
So changed and purified, so fair have grown, 
So one with Thee, so filled with peace divine, 
1 may not know or feel it as my own, — 
But gaining back my will, may find it 
Thine." 

126 



OBJECTIONS TO CHRISTIANITY 
IRRATIONAL. 



127 



" Religion from its very nature must work 
its way forward only by love. Its power lies 
not in legislatures, but in persuasion; and the 
more gently the Bible comes to people's homes 
and to the children, the more divine will the 
book appear/' — Swing. 



" Morality without religion is only a kind 
of dead reckoning — an endeavor to find our 
place on a cloudy sea by measuring the dis- 
tance we have to run, but without any obser- 
vation of the heavenly bodies." — Longfellow. 



" That may be right which is not pleasant, 
and that pleasant which is not right; but 
Christ's religion is both. There is not only 
peace in the end of religion, but peace in the 
way." — Matthew Henry. 



128 



V. 



OBJECTIONS TO CHRISTIAN- 
ITY IRRATIONAL. 



Those who are upon the very 
threshold of the kingdom of God are 
many. Of them it may be truly said, 
" One thing thou lackest/' It is the 
decisive step, ^^I will," without which 
all other preliminary steps are in 
vain. Nearly all of this class are 
convinced. They admit everything. 
In this number many of the first cit- 
izens are included — honest, upright, 
moral men, whose conduct would be 
becoming to any Christian. These 

129 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

are they whose loss to the church and 
the Christian society we can ill af- 
ford to sustain. The good man and 
the influential out of the church will 
be a better man in the church, whose 
potentiality for good will be great 
beyond computation. Of this num- 
ber also are those stalwart defenders 
and supporters of our cause, bound 
to us by such human ties as time can- 
not sever, — people who love the 
church because it was the faith of 
those long gone and whom they 
loved, and whose godly lives abide in 
memory sweeter than the incense 
from a thousand altars. It has ever 
been one of the most perplexing 
questions to me, why those individ- 

130 



OBJECTIONS TO CHRISTIANITY IRRATIONAL 

uals who would resent an indignity 
to the cause of Christianity and who 
would defend the church with their 
blood, will not confess Christ before 
the world and live in the conscious 
enjoyment of His blessed presence. 
The change would involve no great 
sacrifice. Enthroned, their noble 
selves already rule, controlling every 
force that enters into their lives. 
What is it that prevents a full sur- 
render to Christ? Is it the imperi- 
ous spirit in man refusing to bow 
the knee even to a mighty King? 
How foolish! Does not every one 
know that the day will come when 
"every knee shall bow and every 
tongue confess Christ to the glory of 

131 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

God the Father''? In that day the 
mighty shall be brought low, thrones 
shall crumble, and the '' kingdom of 
this world shall become the kingdom 
of our Lord and His Christ.'' 

Or, maybe, it is the conceit of self- 
sufficiency — the spirit that makes 
man a genius or a conquering hero 
in this world, but a spirit that al- 
lures one into hopeless defeat in the 
soul's life. No sailor has ever un- 
dertaken a voyage fraught with such 
danger as he who launches his frail 
craft upon life's sea without God. 
There can be no greater blessing 
than to feel oneself safe, secure in 
time of storm. To be protected by 
an impregnable fortress when a bat- 

132 



OBJECTIONS TO CHRISTIANITY IRRATIONAL 

tie is raging will give one a sense 
of gratitude never to be forgotten. 
Gone fear, worry, disquietude, from 
him who has found refuge in God. 

In an effort to solve the problem 
why good men, men of exemplary 
lives — barring the noncommittal of 
themselves to Christ and the church 
— do not yield all to Him who loves 
them and thus swell the stream of 
Christian influence, a number of real 
difficulties have appeared. 

Perhaps the chief thing in the way 
of the final step in the progress of 
one toward becoming a child of God, 
is false notions concerning the prog- 
ress of conversion and the require- 
ments and privileges of the Chris- 

133 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

tian life. These false conceptions 
are natural to a perverted heart, and 
they have been fostered by teachers 
who themselves needed to be taught. 
Happily, the superstitions that have 
burdened the church as a hideous 
nightmare from time immemorial 
are being shaken off, and we are get- 
ting back to first principles. 

The objectionable elements of our 
religion have been injected into it by 
simple, ignorant, or designing men, 
— ^^ blind leaders of the blind.'' It 
is utterly inconceivable that our 
Lord would so mystify the plan of 
redemption or permit it to be done 
in the epistles, that well-meaning 
people would be confused thereby 

134 



OBJECTIONS TO CHRISTIANITY IRRATIONAL 

and reject it all as an enigma, thus 
making shipwreck of their faith. 

There cannot be in Christianity, in 
tiie very nature of a revelation from 
the Supreme Reason, that which is 
repulsive to intelligent beings, driv- 
ing them away from it, as a con- 
glomeration of intangible fables. 

The service a Eational God re- 
quires of rational men is " a reason- 
able service.'^ All other require- 
ments are vulgar frauds, with no 
higher authority for their enforce- 
ment than some presumptuous char- 
latan who fain would sit in '' Moses^ 
seat.'^ When these unscrupulous 
men, or otherwise weaklings, cease 
to read their opinions into the word 

135 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

of the Lord, ^Hhe whole world will 
be at rest." We are wont to teach 
that the way is so plain that ^Hhe 
wayfaring man though a fool need 
not err therein.'' Is the way plain? 
Has it ever been plain? Then it 
has been obscured by incompetent 
guides. Put away your notions and 
those of the Churchman. Yield your 
life to God, as you used to throw 
yourself upon the mercy and love of 
your Father when you had offended 
him and lost his smile, and there will 
come to you such a flood-tide of light 
as shall leave you in no uncertainty 
as to the rationality of religious re- 
quirements. 

But these hallucinations discolor 



136 



OBJECTIONS TO CHRISTIANITY IRRATIONAL 

the new life the child of God is to 
live, and it becomes univiting to the 
thoughtful man. The Christian life 
is ideal, stripped of all false concep- 
tions. It does not mean that one 
shall be a hermit or a recluse. It 
includes no denial of the world or 
the flesh that reason does not dictate. 
It makes no demand upon any man 
incompatible with the character of a 
gentleman. Grood-citizenship and an 
honorable position in society demand 
that one shall live up to Christian 
standards. If there is aught in the 
teaching or practice of any Christian 
society contrary to reason, you have 
a right to repudiate it. But mark 
you, you will find nothing in the life 

137 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

or teaching of Jesus to chill your 
blood and merit your unkindly criti- 
cism. 

Who has not heard men who had 
"zeal without knowledge" picture 
the trials and burdens of a Christian 
life in a way to warn every one who 
heard him against it? And from 
such teaching there is an impression 
abroad that that life which should be 
smooth and beautiful and serene and 
joyous J is a synonym of hardness, 
severity, suffering, without a paral- 
lel. It is false — it is a huge decep- 
tion of the devil. 

We hear talk of the poor Chris- 
tian's burdens, as if the sinner had 
none to bear. Do not sin and sor- 

138 



OBJECTIONS TO CHRISTIANITY IRRATIONAL 

row, sickness and death, come to ns 
all alike? The difference is that he 
who has entered into partnership 
with Christ has One to help him who 
has said to him, ^^ Cast your cares 
upon me, for I care for you.'^ 

Then it is sometimes said by men 
who devoutly respect Christianity 
that they would not hesitate to be- 
come Christians, were it not for its 
unreasonable requirements ; such, 
for instance, as the giving up of the 
dear and familiar associations and 
the pleasures in which their very 
lives consist. 

That was a hard saying if literally 
interpreted: ^^Ye must hate father 
and mother, brother and sister, 

139 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

houses and lands for my sake and 
the gospel, else you cannot be my 
disciple.'' Who could except to it 
when it is known to mean only that 
the dearest idol in the world must 
not stand between God and His 
child? Give up everything rather 
than give up God, is what it means 
to teach. 

The one thing to be given up is 
sin, not friends, not pleasures. The 
new life will adjust itself to its new 
environments without friction. You 
will be expected to live in the same 
circles, associating with the same 
people, but you are not to " become 
partaker of their sins.'' And for 
everything you surrender for 

140 



OBJECTIONS TO CHRISTIANITY IRRATIONAL 

Christ^s sake, you will have an hun- 
dred fold. No one gives up aught 
for Christ, but Christ gives him 
something better in its place. 

In fact, instead of becoming iso- 
lated in the Christian life, one's 
friends are multiplied. One's 
friends in the world stand by him, 
and the whole Church comes to his 
assistance. 

The requirement is simply that 
one shall renounce the friendships, 
alliances and pleasures which are 
hurtful to himself and to society. 
Is not that rational? The day has 
passed in which sanctimoniousness 
and asceticism are legal tender for 
piety. 

141 



THE M AKIN a OF A CHRISTIAN 

Is it not a fact, too, that some 
hesitate to confess Christ on self- 
ish grounds, — because a consistent 
Christian's life would mean a change 
in their business methods that would 
seem to be subversive of their inter- 
est? It has been charged upon re- 
ligious people that they were in the 
church for the sake of the good name 
and influence it gave them, and for 
the reward offered, — all of which 
signifies a selfish, sordid motive, 
unworthy of the unselfish Christ. 
Without stopping to dignify this 
charge with any effort at refutation, 
let the man of the world be ques- 
tioned as to his motives for remain- 
ing out of the church. Perhaps he 

142 



OBJECTIONS TO CHRISTIANITY IRRATIONAL 

would disclaim any motives at all. 
Then why does he refuse to avail 
himself of the privileges of the gos- 
pel, the only system of teaching 
which offers him hope for the fu- 
ture? 

You will find upon careful exami- 
nation that men have a motive for 
continuing in sin, and that the quin- 
tessence of it is selfishness. They be- 
lieve with all their heart that there 
is more in a life abandoned to the 
world than the life surrendered to 
Christ. They see more pleasure in 
it ; they hope to profit financially by 
it ; they see greater popularity with 
the ^^ gay set.'' If these are not the 
reasons, then why deny oneself of 

143 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

the joy of the religious life? Why 
sign away one's right and title to the 
meek's inheritance on earth, and the 
^^joy of the Lord'' in the coming 
kingdom, if there be no considera- 
tion? 

It is poor logic to stay out of the 
church because the gospel of the 
New Testament requires honesty 
and uprightness. After all, what 
right has the sinner to do wrong, 
what license to commit himself to a 
sinful life, that is denied the disciple 
of Christ? 

A young man said to me recently, 
^^Why, if I should join the church 
I would have to give up all my sins," 
— as if being a stranger to God's 

144 



OBJECTIONS TO CHRISTIANITY IRRATIONAL 

grace gave him liberty in vice. He 
seemed surprised when he was told 
that his right to do wrong was no 
greater than my own or that of any 
other church member. 

How many people are breaking 
the commandments daily, and stulti- 
fying their characters, because they 
are not members of the church ! 

Be it known that disobedience to 
God does not release from responsi- 
bility. The sinner is under obliga- 
tion to God, and will be brought to 
account for every sin. 

There are many who would enter 
the Christian race, but they are 
afraid they can't hold out. Do not 
fear; ''God is able to keep that 

145 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

which is committed to Him against 
that day.'' If the success of any 
man's term of service for Christ de- 
pended upon his own faithfulness, 
it would be a failure. In ourselves 
we are not strong enough to push 
our way through the enemy's lines. 
But it is God's faithfulness to us 
that guarantees ultimate victory. 
'' God is faithful by whom we were 
called into the fellowship of His son 
Jesus Christ our Lord." ^^He is 
faithful who has called us ; He will 
not suffer our foot to be moved." 
^^He that keepeth us will not slum- 
ber." What our Lord said of the 
apostles, namely, '' No man can take 

146 



OBJECTIONS TO CHRISTIANITY IRRATIONAL 

them out of my hands/' He says of 
every follower of His. 

Hundreds have said to me, '^ I fear 
I can't hold out, and I don't want to 
reflect on the cause." That spirit is 
to be commended in one, but there is 
no danger. You think of your bad 
habits, what a terrible grip they 
have upon you, and how you have 
broken resolutions in the past. In 
the new life sin does not have domin- 
ion — that is where victory comes in 
easy. You are made a new creature ; 
^^old things are passed away," — 
old lives, old habits, and old tenden- 
cies, and ^^ behold, all things are 
made new." " The things you once 
loved you will then hate, and the 

147 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

things you hated yon will then love." 
You can hold out and run with 
patience the race set before you, only 
you must keep your eyes on Christ, 
the beginner and finisher of your 
faith. That you could not prove 
yourself worthy of God's confidence 
and help is a heresy of the devil. It 
is absurd to think for a moment that 
God would fail him who has in- 
trusted his all to Him. Will those 
who all their lives refused to heed 
the gospel call stop and consider 
what must be the result of such ob- 
stinacy? 

Some day the call will come to 
you for the last time ; then your op- 
portunities will have been irretriev- 

* 148 



OBJECTIONS TO CHRISTIANITY IRRATIONAL 

ably lost. Then what? If you will 
not confess Christ here, He will not 
confess you yonder. Consequently, 
in the presence of God you must 
stand alone to account for your 
wasted life. That will be the crucial 
hour of all your existence. When 
one gets into business or social trou- 
ble, he seeks the best possible coun- 
sel to represent him at the bar of 
court. Christ has promised to be his 
advocate in the Court of Heaven who 
is loyal to Him here. It is bad 
enough to be without Christ in the 
world. How much worse it will be 
to be denied His friendship in the 
great crisis — when the awful words 



149 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

shall be spoken, ^^ Depart from me; 
I never knew you." 

Christ is the only name given 
under heaven among men whereby 
you can be saved. Refuse Him and 
you are lost forever. He is your 
greatest need now; He only can 
avail you when the world slips away 
from you. ^^ Almost persuaded." 
That is a great confession for any 
soul to make. But won't you break 
down every barrier, and step over 
the line noivf You say ^^yes/' but 
let me wait till to-morrow. The su- 
preme magistrate of Thebes waited 
one day and lost all. Many a man 
has waited for a ^'convenient sea- 
son " to close in with some splendid 

150 



OBJECTIONS TO CHRISTIANITY IRRATIONAL 

offer, to find that '' time and oppor- 
tunity wait for no man." The result 
was the loss of fortune or fame. 

This matter requireth haste. Why 
not be sensible in relation to the 
subject, and make sure your eternal 
peace? To ^^seek first the kingdom 
of God '' is God's way, and it is the 
right way. There is only one way to 
arrive at calmness which will be per- 
manent; that is to settle this ques- 
tion once and for all. You can't 
have done with it otherwise. ^^ Be- 
hold, now is the accepted time ; be- 
hold, to-day is the day of Salvation." 

Christ came to solve the vexatious 
problems of the human soul, and 
give rest to the weary. He did not 

151 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

come to brush away every shadow, 
and hush the thunders and still the 
tempest forever ; but He came to give 
peace in the midst of storms, to make 
men brave and courageous and hope- 
ful, howsoever much the sea of life 
may roar and be troubled. He is the 
solution of the problem himself. To 
have possessed Him is to have peace 
and dignity and calmness, without 
which a man cannot be a man. How 
beautiful the life which rests upon 
Christ ! Weary soul, tired, tempted, 
torn, — tried by adverse conditions, 
— fly to Him and find rest! 

Two artists, it is related, each 
painted a picture to illustrate his 
idea of rest. The first chose for his 

152 



OBJECTIONS TO CHRISTIANITY IRRATIONAL 

scene a still, lone lake, far away in 
the mountains. The other threw 
upon his canvas a thunderous water- 
fall, with a fragile tree bending over 
the foam. In the branches was a 
robin on her nest, wet with the cata- 
ract's spray. The first was stagna- 
tion ; the last was rest. 

Whatever your surroundings may 
be, you can have the sweet, unbroken 
rest which God gives to him who 
commits his way unto the Lord. 



153 



EXCUSES WHICH DO NOT EX- 
CUSE. 



155 



I 



" We ought to discern the real strength of 
Christianity and revive the ancient passion for 
Jesus. It is the distinction of our religion, it 
is the guarantee of its triumph. Faith may 
languish, creeds may be changed; churches 
may be dissolved, society may be shattered. 
But one cannot imagine the time when Jesus 
will not be the fair image of perfection, or the 
circumstances wherein He will not be loved. 
He can never be superseded; He can never be 
exceeded. Religions will come and go, the 
passing shapes of eternal instinct; but Jesus 
will remain the standard of the conscience and 
the satisfaction of the heart, whom all men 
seek, in whom all men will yet meet." — Ian 
MacLaren. 



156 



VI. 

EXCUSES WHICH DO NOT EX- 
CUSE. 



'^Then said He unto Mm, a cer- 
tain man made a great supper and 
bade many ; and sent his servant at 
supper-time to say to them that were 
bidden, Come^ for all things are now 
ready." 

" And they all with consent began 
to make excuse." 

If drought or flood should come 
and destroy the fortunes of a com- 
munity, leaving the people without 
food, and they should begin to suffer 
great hunger, and some generous 
and princely man should provide a 

157 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

sumptuous feast and invite the fam- 
ishing to come and eat, do you not 
think he would be very foolish who 
would refuse the invitation? 

Sin, like a flood-tide pouring 
through the gates of Eden, has swept 
over the world, and the Eden of hap- 
piness, beauty and plenty has been 
destroyed in human lives. The soul, 
hungry and emaciated, has been 
feeding upon husks, but still is not 
satisfied. It cries out '^ like an infant 
in the night '' for sustenance, but the 
world cannot answer its voices. It 
cannot assimilate the coarse food of 
the world. What it gives is not 
bread to the soul. ^^ Wherefore do 
ye spend money for that which is not 
bread? and your labor for that 
which satisfieth not ? " Harken dili- 

158 



EXCUSES WHICH DO NOT EXCUSE 

gently unto me and eat ye that which 
is good, and let your soul delight it- 
self in fatness. " Incline your ear 
and come unto me; hear and your 
soul shall live/' 

Since sin entered the world man 
has not been contented ; he has been 
as restless and uncertain as a ship 
set adrift on an ocean without a 
pilot. His life has been incomplete, 
and he has sought rest in many lands 
but found it not. He has lived in 
luxury only to fill his life with van- 
ity, not contentment. Men try to 
forget their need of something 
higher by immersing themselves in 
the streams of wealth and pleasure 
and sin. But wherever he is found 
the voice may be heard crying for 
living bread. 

159 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

In the fullness of time a Prince and 
a Savior came to the world, and He 
spread a feast, a feast that would 
thoroughly satisfy and to which He 
bade many. It was precisely what 
men had been hungering for, and 
without which starvation could not 
be averted. Is it not surprising that 
they did not hasten to accept the in- 
vitation? ^^But they consented to- 
gether to make excuse.^' 

No one dare say the invitation was 
not generous and sufficiently urgent. 
And it was as broad as human needs. 
^' Ho, every one that thirsteth, come 
ye to the waters, and he that hath no 
money, come ye, buy and eat; yea, 
buy wine and milk without money 
and without price.'^ And so the in- 
vitation is given to-day, and it in- 

160 



EXCUSES WHICH DO NOT EXCUSE 

eludes every one who is conscious of 
his need of something higher and 
better than has entered into his life 
hitherto. 

Have you been wondering whether 
you were included in the invitation! 
If you have a soul-thirst or hunger, 
if your life seems incomplete, unsat- 
isfied, if surfeited on what the 
world feeds you, — you are included. 
Christ came to round out human life 
— to give "life more abundant^' — 
peace, joy, eternal happiness. What 
He came to do cannot be done by any 
other. What one can realize in 
Christ cannot be found elsewhere. 
Christianity is what a sinful man 
needs, and it is all he needs. In the 
making of a man, the groundwork 
and the keystone are Christianity. 

161 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

It completes the character, beautifies, 
symmetrizes, strengthens, glorifies. 
If there be any test of character, 
whether that character is made 
strong by Christ will depend its 
power to stand the test. There are a 
few small souls who walk through 
the world without coming in contact 
with any considerable storms, and so 
without Christ succeed in keeping 
their footing. But the man who is 
" born to rule the storm '' and to con- 
tribute to the world's peace — then 
to anchor by-and-by — he it is who 
is strengthened and sustained by 
that silent force that speaks the 
divine presence. 

Seeing Christ is man's need and 
all he needs, is it not altogether un- 
reasonable that he should live with- 

162 



EXCUSES WHICH DO NOT EXCUSE 

out Him, when He freely offers 
Himself, His life, His influence, to 
all who come to Him? You have 
noted that those in the parable who 
refused to come ^^made excuses''; 
they did not give reasons. Can there 
be any rational ground for refusing 
Christ's invitation, or even delaying 
to accept it? Could one hope to be 
excused for failure to perform duty, 
especially when its performance 
meant everything to himself — the 
happy solution of life's great prob- 
lem, the preparation of himself for 
life, whatever may come? Can one 
satisfy his own conscience under 
such circumstances? 

If the question were put to you 
plainly, ^^ Why do you not become a 
Christian?" you would doubtless 

163 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

reply that you had good reasons for 
not doing so. If yon will stop to 
consider and analyze your answer, 
you will find that your ^^ reasons^' 
are only ^^ excuses/' unwarranted 
and silly enough. 

Suppose you shall say you are not 
quite sure of the reality of Christi- 
anity, founding your objection upon 
this ground : it is still clearly your 
duty to accept Christ upon the terms 
of the gospel, because reason will 
tell you that whatever of hope for 
time and eternity the world has, it is 
in Him. If you were stranded in 
deep water and unable to swim, you 
would welcome the frailest kind of 
boat as a means of rescue, your rea- 
son telling you that although it was 
unsafe, yet it was better than no 

164 



EXCUSES WHICH DO NOT EXCUSE 

boat. You are adrift on the ocean 
of life. You cannot steer your own 
frail craft to safety. Would you not 
be wise to invite Christ into your 
life, who spoke to the sea '^ and there 
was a great calm '' ? 

The plan of redemption is not ir- 
rational, even though it may seem so 
to you. '' Shall your unbelief make 
the faith of God without effect? " 

Many are the excuses the personal 
worker must meet who urges the 
claims of Christ upon man. But 
they all belong to one category — ex- 
cuses which do not excuse. 

Let us take for granted that we 
are addressing those who are con- 
vinced as to their duty and privilege 
concerning the gospel, and that they 
are honest with us as we are trying 

165 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

to be with them. What would be 
some of the excuses we should likely 
hear? 

The sluggard would say : '' I have 
plenty of time for religion." He is 
identical with the man who sits on 
the fence and lazily watches the in- 
dustrious, successful caravan pass 
by, and wonders why he is left be- 
hind in the race of life. '^ I went by 
the field of the slothful, and by the 
vineyard of the man who was void 
of understanding : And, lo, it was all 
grown over with thorns, and nettles 
had covered the face thereof, and the 
stone wall thereof was broken down. 
. . . Yet a little sleep, a little 
slumber, so shall thy poverty come 
as one that travaileth and thy want 
as an armed man.'' This is a true 

166 



EXCUSES WHICH DO NOT EXCUSE 

picture of him who says he has 
plenty of time to do his work and 
folds his hands in sleep. In some 
one of the old readers is a picture 
of the sluggard and his premises. 
His house is dilapidated; the yard 
is full of weeds; the fence is in 
ruins. The sluggard himself leans 
upon the front gate in tattered gar- 
ments. Such is the life and spiritual 
environments of the man who, say- 
ing he has plenty of time to become a 
Christian, brings ruin upon himself, 
and sin clothes him in the rags of 
unrighteousness. 

Suppose you are robust to-day, 
with the bloom of youth upon your 
cheek, what assurance have you that 
you shall breathe the sweet air of 
another day? To-morrow is not 

167 



THE M AKIN a OF A CHRISTIAN 

yours — to-day is yours, and if 
rightly lived '' all things are yours/' 
^^But and if that evil servant shall 
say in his heart, ^ My Lord delayeth 
His coming,' and shall begin to smite 
his fellow-servants, and to eat and 
drink with the drunken ; the Lord of 
that servant shall come in a day that 
he looketh not for him, and in an 
hour that he is not aware of, and 
shall cut him asunder and appoint 
him his portion with the hypocrites/' 
Presuming upon the mercy of Grod 
and saying in your heart that your 
Lord has delayed His coming, will 
result in your eternal ruin. The sin 
of presumption has wrecked many 
noble lives. '' Keep back Thy serv- 
ant also from presumptuous sins ; let 
them not have dominion over me: 

168 



I 



EXCUSES WHICH DO NOT EXCUSE 

then shall I be upright, and I shall 
be innocent from the great trans- 
gression/' Every man has suffi- 
cient time to prepare for the future, 
but none to spare. 

There are others, who would aver 
that they were so busy that they had 
no time to devote to religious mat- 
ters. As if one had time for aught 
else until that great question were 
attended to ! ^^Seek ye first the king- 
dom of God and His righteousness; 
and all these things shall be added 
unto you.'' But sinful, avaricious 
men have reversed the order, and 
spend the morning and noon of life 
seeking the world, hoping when their 
object is accomplished that there will 
still be time to seek Grod. To say one 
has no time for religion, is to say 

169 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

that one has only time for trifles, and 
no time for great things. Many 
think the first thing to do is to make 
money, to gain reputation, to get 
ready to live after the fashion of the 
world. At least, so the trend of their 
conduct would indicate. It is to the 
members of that unthinking class 
that the awful words often come, 
right in the midst of their most suc- 
cessful efforts to amass fortune: 
'' Thou fool, this night shall thy soul 
be required of thee." ^^ Then whose 
shall these things be which thou hast 
provided?'^ 

There are others, who will say 
that they are good enough without a 
profession of allegiance to Christ. 
There could be no stronger evidence 
of one's need of Christ than this 

170 



EXCUSES WHICH DO NOT EXCUSE 

claim. He who was caught up into 
the third heaven and lived only as he 
can live who has seen Christ, pro- 
nounced himself the "chief of sin- 
ners/' " The least of all Apostles 
who was not worthy to be called an 
Apostle.^' Oh, the consummate con- 
ceit of him who says he is good 
enough without Christ! The world 
unfortunately contains many such, 
whom it is not large enough to con- 
tain were their size equal to their 
conceit. After one has done all, he 
can only say he is " an unprofitable 
servant.'' What kind of servant, 
therefore, should he consider him- 
self who does nothing but throw 
flowers upon himself and commend 
his own virtues ? 

The farther one is from the light, 

171 



TRE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

the less distinct and accurate one's 
vision. He must be far away from 
Him indeed, who cannot see in the 
light of Christ's purity, his own sins 
and filth and rags. 

The Pharisee — and his tribe seem 
to be on the increase — will tell you 
that he will have nothing to do with 
religion, because there are insin- 
cere and hypocritical people in the 
Church, — as though the Church 
were the only place where such char- 
acters can be found. It must be con- 
fessed that to all appearances there 
are those in the church that they may 
the more successfully carry out their 
wicked designs — greatest of all 
compliments to the church; but let 
us also bear in mind that it has no 
monopoly upon that class. 

172 



EXCUSES WHICH DO NOT EXCUSE 

The man who will not be a Chris- 
tian because all Christians do not 
rise to the ideal, is a poor logician, 
who if he were to carry his logic into 
every-day affairs would neither be a 
husband, a father, a farmer, a car- 
penter, a citizen, nor a man. He 
would have simply to vanish into 
thin air. The wheat and the tares 
grow together, and will so continue 
to grow until the Lord of the harvest 
comes. 

But it is one's business to do right 
if the whole world shall do wrong. 
And since one is not responsible for 
the defects of the Christian commu- 
nity, defects that shall burden it 
until the great day, why should one 
worry about them as though the 



173 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

whole weight of the matter were 
upon his shoulders? 

With all its defects, the Church is 
far in advance of the class to which 
the complainer belongs. It contains 
the noblest, bravest, and best of 
earth's sons and daughters. The 
backbone of every humanizing as 
well as Christianizing movement; 
the warp and woof of every commu- 
nity; the bulwark of every civiliza- 
tion — are those who believe in 
Christ, and are trying, though in a 
poor and feeble way, to serve God. 

We do not hold before you any 
man of the kingdom as an ideal 
worthy of your complete imitation. 
The best have imperfections that are 
grievous. We have but one model, a 
perfect man, God's idea of what a 

174 



EXCUSES WHICH DO NOT EXCUSE 

man ought to be, and man's idea of 
what a God should be to command 
universal respect. He is the stand- 
ard; measure your life by His, not 
by some miserable, halting, un- 
worthy follower of His. 

We must acknowledge that there 
are many professing Christians who 
have not the distinguishing marks 
of Christianity. And, sad to say, the 
religion of our Lord is depreciated 
on account of these poor specimens. 
But it ought not so to be. 

There are others, who imagine that 
it is a sign of weakness, of intellec- 
tual littleness, and degeneration, to 
become a follower of Christ. Vainly 
puffed up, they profess too much 
strength to be led and influenced by 
so unpretentious a class as compose 

175 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 



the heralds of the cross. They take 
their cue from those defamers of 
Christianity whose sensational as- 
persions upon the Church, and 
animadversions upon everything 
sacredj give them a kind of national 
reputation. 

Those defamers are spiritual an- 
archists and iconoclasts, who would 
destroy God, put out the light of civ- 
ilization, clip the wings of hope, 
pluck out the eyes of faith, and shut 
man up in a prison of darkness. 

The willful, malicious falsehoods 
of opposers of religion notwith- 
standing, you will find upon the 
Church roster the intellectual Titans 
of the ages. Review the list of great 
and good men in the world to-day — 
statesmen, scholars, and philanthro- 

176 



EXCUSES WHICH DO NOT EXCUSE 

pists — ^and you will find that the 
greatest of them are believers in re- 
ligion. Then, say it is a sign of 
weakness to be a Christian? It is a 
sign of weakness not to be a Chris- 
tian. It is a fool who will not be led. 
Sneh men mistake in themselves 
stubbornness for strength of char- 
acter. ^^The fool hath said in his 
heart, there is no God/' and while 
he walks through the world trying to 
cover up God's footprints, all sensi- 
ble men laugh at him. 

Tom Paine, who affected to believe 
that it was a sign of imbecility to 
follow Christ, said that a century 
would be sufficient to blot out the last 
copy of the Bible. The infidel, long 
since dead and almost forgotten, 
lives in a few ruined lives as ghosts 

177 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

inhabit dilapidated buildings, but 
the Scriptures by the millions of 
copies each year are being published 
in nearly all the languages and dia- 
lects of earth. 

Most of all, perhaps, is to be pit- 
ied the man who reverences Christ, 
believes in Christianity with all his 
strength, and fully intends to be- 
come a Christian, but who thinks he 
is not quite ready. If one is not pre- 
pared to die without Christ, neither 
is one ready to live without Him. 
^^Be ye also ready, for in such an 
hour as ye think not, the Son of Man 
cometh.'' 

Strange as it may seem, the an- 
swer comes to the Christian worker 
very often : '' I am not quite ready.'' 
Many have closed their eyes upon 

178 



I 



EXCUSES WHICH DO NOT EXCUSE 

the world to open them upon despair, 
because they were not ready to yield 
to Christ when the opportunity was 
most favorable. 

A poor peasant sat by an onflow- 
ing stream, waiting for the waters to 
flow by that he might cross to the 
other side. You are waiting for 
temptation to flow by, for the stream 
of worldly pleasure, for love of the 
world, for certain unholy associa- 
tions. Wait no longer ! As the way 
to cross the Eed Sea and the Jordan 
was made possible because the peo- 
ple were determined, some way to 
pass beyond these things that detain 
you on the side of the world will be 
made, if you will but set your face 
toward God and trust to His grace 
for victory. 

179 



I 



THE CHRISTIAN'S ASSURANCE. 



» 



" Wait for the morning, it will come indeed, 

Sure as the night hath given need; 
Thy eager eyes will strain their sight no 

longer. 
Unanswered by the morning light. 
No more vainly strive through tears. 
To pierce the darkness of thy doubts and fears ; 
But, bathed in sunny dews and rays of dawn. 
Will smile with rapture over darkness drawn. 

" Wait for the morning, thou smitten child. 
Scorned, scourged, persecuted and reviled; 
Athirst and famishing, none pitying thee. 
Crowned with the twisted thorns of agony. 
With no faintest ray of sunlight through the 

dense 
Infinity of gloom to light thee thence; 
Wait for the morning, — it will come indeed, 
Sure as the night hath given need." 

James Whitcomh Riley. 



% 



"After the fever of life — after weariness, 
fightings and despondings, languor and fretful- 
ness, struggling and failing, struggling and 
succeeding — after all the chances ana changes 
of this troubled and unhealthy state — at 
length the white throne of God — at length 
the beatific vision." — J. H. Newman. 



182 



vn. 

THE CHRISTIAN'S ASSURANCE. 



The Christian has no more of 
trials than any other man, and he 
has what others do not have, namely, 
the assurance of his heavenly 
Father's favor and approval while 
on earth, and of surroundings suited 
to his highest enjoyment in the land 
beyond the stars. The estate of sons 
of God, a certain knowledge of which 
God gives to his children, is a happy 
one indeed. If you are God's child, 
you know that He will take care of 
you, and that by His providence " all 
things shall work together for good.'' 

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THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

Could anything contribute so much 
to one's happiness as thus to know 
that the everlasting, ever-loving 
Father has taken him into His fam- 
ily circle and become personally re- 
sponsible for his well-being? ^^ Be- 
loved, now are we the sons of God." 
... ^^ If sons, then heirs, heirs of 
Grod and joint heirs with Jesus 
Christ.'' Such an exalted relation 
glorifies the heritage of Christians. 
It endows poverty with riches, it 
lightens burdens, it soothes pain, it 
brings a halo to the brow of the sick, 
it takes away the sting of death, and 
floods the future with transcendent 
light. 

But with all that Christ does for 
us here and is to us, " It doth not yet 
appear what we shall be." Such a 

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THE CHRISTIAN'S ASSURANCE 

triumph and glory shall be his who 
achieves victory over the world as 
has not entered into the heart of man 
to conceive. '' But we know we shall 
be like Him ; for we shall see Him as 
He is." With this faith and assur- 
ance, what does it matter if we must 
suffer hardness, endure sickness and 
pass through fiery trials, since '^ our 
light affliction which is but for a 
moment worketh for us a far more 
exceeding and eternal weight of 
glory '' ? The crown that awaits the 
faithful ones upon the performance 
of their duties, duties which are not 
grievous if done for the Master, is 
worth more than all things else. 

Here we must necessarily suffer 
many inconveniences, some of us 
more than others. It is delightful 

185 



TBE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

occasionally to look away from the 
darkness of earth to the sunlit 
climeSj and contemplate what God 
has in store for those who love and 
serve Him. 

" Heavenly joys shall be like the tree of 
life in the New Jerusalem, which brings forth 
twelve manner of fruits, and yields its fruit 
every month. Robert Hall used to cry : * 0, 
for the everlasting rest! ' But Wilberforce 
would sigh to dwell in unbroken love. Hall 
was a man who suffered; he longed for rest. 
Wilberforce was a man of amiable spirit, 
loving society and fellowship; he longed for 
love. Hall shall have his rest^ and Wilber- 
force his love. There are joys at God's right 
hand for the spiritual tastes of all those who 
shall come thither. The heavenly manna tastes 
to every man's peculiar liking." 

After discussing the doctrine of 
eschatology, or last things, and per- 
haps looking npon death with some 
feelings of trepidation, Paul swept 
the future, and in his vision he saw 

186 



i 



THE CHRISTIAN'S ASSURANCE 

the happy throngs of redeemed, — 
he saw the crowning day of his own 
life, and as the summer snn melts the 
clouds every shadow disappeared. 
He had anticipated the early return 
of the Lord and had indulged in the 
hope that he would be caught up in 
the clouds without passing through 
the valley of death. But in his en- 
rapt state he reasons : '^ What if this 
body must slumber in death, decay 
and return to its original elements, 
I shall have a better one, a ' glorious 
body.'^^ And there is no halting 
timidity or uncertainty in his speech. 
He speaks with the dogmatic assur- 
ance of one who knows. ^' We know 
that if our earthly house of this tab- 
ernacle were dissolved, we have a 
building of God, an house not made 

187 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

with hands, eternal in the heavens/' 
Here is assurance for all times. 
This conscious knowledge enabled 
the apostle to bequeath to the world 
a hero's life of faith and trust which 
astonishes and charms us. 

Suppose the house in which we 
live and love and suffer here is in- 
secure and unable to stand many 
storms : we are going to have a bet- 
ter one when it falls. Some young 
friends who had recently gone to 
housekeeping in a poor, squalid 
house said to me : '' We are here only 
temporarily. After a while we are 
going to have a fine, large mansion 
with many doors and windows, and 
it shall be handsomely furnished." 
The first house was uncomfortable in 
the extreme, but they endured it be- 

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THE CHRISTIAN'S ASSURANCE 

cause they hoped to have a better 
one. Many of God's children are 
forced to occupy frail bodies which 
are racked with pain and a prey to 
disease and constant sickness. What 
a comfort to know that the house 
God has fitted up for those thus un- 
fortunate here is one in which they 
shall have unbroken pleasure! 

A sick friend said to me : '^ This 
house of mine has been a frail one 
through the years. It has never kept 
me comfortable, still I have loved it 
and I am loth to give it up. But, sir, 
I have a better one, one that the 
storms of life camiot wreck, and in it 
I shall be happy and secure forever- 
more.'' 

One of the brightest, sweetest 
Christians it has been my pleasure 

189 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

to know, is a woman who has been 
an invalid, confined to her bed for 
twenty-five years! She suffers un- 
told agonies all the time, yet she 
never complains. Her room is lit up 
with a strange light, and her friends 
delight to visit her because there is 
so much of good cheer in her pres- 
ence. Her house has ever been un- 
comely and poor. Day by day she 
has watched it decay, and without a 
shudder she has seen the clay crum- 
bling from over her head. Weather- 
beaten, the wild winds have whistled 
through, and aches and pains have 
been her daily companions. And she 
groans in spirit, desiring to be 
clothed upon with that heavenly 
house, the glorious body that shall 
never know pain. This child of God 

190 



THE CHRISTIAN'S ASSURANCE 

lives upon the mount of transfigur- 
ation, and she is ever singing the 
songs of victory. 

In a graceful cottonwood tree in 
our front yard a mocking-bird has 
kindly made his home. He moved 
his prima donna there before the 
ides of March. The spring has been 
cold, rainy, dreary, but our neigh- 
bors have given us a daily concert. 
During the month of May, the sun 
hid its face for a whole week and it 
rained almost incessantly, but there 
was music in the tree-top every day. 
The floods arose and the people 
were terrified, and destruction of life 
and property brought mourning to 
them; but still my orchestra sang. 
One day the heavens were black as 
night, the storm raged, the waters 

191 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

roared with the swelling thereof, 
trees were bent almost to the ground 
by the giant arm of the storm, and 
the rain fell in blinding sheets. 
There was a lull in the battle of 
the elements — my sweetheart was 
singing. It is now the ides of June. 
The morning is ideal — from across 
the lawn come the sweet strains of 
ever-varying song whose heavenly 
harmonies fill my soul with delight. 
The air is full of music and redolent 
with the perfume of a thousand flow- 
ers; the sweet-scented honeysuckle 
is wafting its perfumed breath to 
me through the open window. One 
might easily imagine oneself in the 
far-away East, standing in the open 
^ate of fair far-famed Eden. There 
is no wonder that the birds sing to- 

192 



THE CHRISTIAN'S ASSURANCE 

day, but they sing also in the storm. 
They sing after the curtain of night 
has fallen. Only last night I was 
awakened from a sad dream to hear 
my cheerful neighbor singing his 
glad song. The little home is robbed 
by some winged thief. There is sor- 
row for a night, but the matin song 
rings out clear and joyous. The un- 
thoughtful boy with arrow pierces 
the wing of the singer, but he does 
not rob him of his sweetness. He 
sings and forgets his pain. 

What a blessing to himself and to 
the world is the happy, light-hearted 
Christian ! And why should we not 
be happy? Ours is the assurance 
of faith. We know that our Father 
will feed and clothe us, that he will 
give us grace and glory, and '' with- 

193 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

hold no good thing from ns/^ — for 
we are of more value than many 
sparrows, not one of which falls to 
the ground without His seeing it. 

A friend of mine in the southern 
part of Kansas was joined to the 
bride of his heart. He owned a farm 
on which was a two-roomed cabin. 
He said to her in whom his soul de- 
lighted, ^^Now I haven't the means 
to build a suitable home for you, and 
it would be unwise to mortgage the 
farm. Let us occupy the little house 
and try to be happy, and sometime 
we shall be able to build a handsome 
one.'' He was frugal and indus- 
trious, but twenty years had gone 
by before he was able to build, and 
eight children had come to crowd the 
walls of their little home. One day 

194 



THE CHRISTIAN'S ASSURANCE 

he conducted me through the new 
house, one of the finest country resi- 
dences in the State, and as we went 
from room to room he told me of 
their struggles, how uncomfortable 
they had been, how they had suf- 
fered, and with what pleasure they 
had looked forward to the new home. 
I thought of these tenements of clay 
in which we live, how poorly we get 
along in them, and then an apocalyp- 
tic vision of the mansion in the sweet 
by-and-by came to me, and it was 
glorious to behold. 

Let us not complain of our lot 
here, whatever it may be. Heaven 
will reward us a thousand times over 
for what we endure in the land of 
shadows. And we shall appreciate 
the mansion so much the more, be- 

195 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

cause we have occupied the hovel. 
And there shall be no more sorrow, 
sickness, or death, and God shall 
wipe every tear from our eyes. 

But not only does it comfort us 
to know that we shall be better off 
when these bodies are laid down, but 
we have the assurance that our loved 
ones and friends who have been 
called hence have entered upon an 
inheritance grand and beautiful. 

The world is full of change and 
decay. Happy families are broken 
up, and their members are scattered 
to the four corners of earth. When 
they depart for their new homes, 
maybe across the seas, although they 
are to live in kings' palaces and to 
have every luxury, yet the pain at 
parting is very great. And there are 

196 



THE CHRISTIAN'S ASSURANCE 

heartaches and pains and sleepless 
nights. We cannot but sorrow when 
those dear to us fold their tents and 
set sail over unknown seas, to the 
^^undiscovered country from whose 
bourne no traveler returns/' yet we 
mourn not "as those who have no 
hope." We know that we shall see 
them again where the sun forever 
shines, the flowers forever bloom, 
and pleasures have no end. 

Years ago, a mother awoke one 
night to find the roof of the new 
home burning over her head. The 
father was not there that night, and 
there was barely time to awaken the 
children and get them out before the 
building fell. The next morning the 
mother took the little ones into a log 
cabin in the field temporarily. It 

197 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

was a great trial. It is not thus 
when the ^^ earthly houses'' of our 
friends are burned up by raging 
fevers. Thank God, they go into 
better houses, houses made without 
hands, '^ eternal in the heavens." 

Life would be worse than a failure 
but for the glorious future to which 
earth's pilgrims can look forward 
through their gloom and tears. 
There are not many of us but whose 
troubles outnumber our pleasures. 
But the cares, burdens and sorrows 
here endure but for a season, while 
the blessedness of the life beyond is 
eternal. Beautiful hope! Blessed 
assurance! The day is dawning 
when faith shall be lost in sight, and 
hope swallowed up in victory, and 
when God's children shall be caught 

198 



THE CHRISTIAN'S ASSURANCE 

up in the air, ever to be with the 
Lord. 

" Ye needna think it 's no' for you. 
An' syne ye '11 lea' 't alane ; 
He bocht an entrance wi' His bluid — 

An' ye 're a' welcome hame. 

Ye needna hanker on the road; 

If sae, He 's nae tae blame ; 

* Come unto Me/ He says to a' — 

For ye 're a' welcome hame. 

" The beggar man wi' tattered claes, 
The queen wi' silken train, 
Wha pleads the merits o' His bluid 

Will ha'e a welcome hame. 
The rich, the puir, the young, the auld, 
To Jesus are the same; 
' Come unto Me,' He says to a' — 
For ye 're a' welcome hame. 

" Ahint the clouds the sun is bricht, 
An' whiles oor hearts are fain 
To lea' the struggles o' this war? 

An' flee to yon bricht hame. 
The mansions o' the blest are there; 

Wi' herts a' free frae pain, 
We '11 gang when His guid time comes 
roon — 
For we 're a' welcome hame. 

199 



THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN 

' We '11 meet wi' f rien's we kent lang syne, 

Wha frae oor herts were ta'en; 
They couldna bide, for Jesus ca'ed 

Them up to His ain hame. 
We '11 meet them, an' we '11 welcome be 

Where Jesus is to reign; 
We '11 gang when His guid time comes 
roon — 
For we 're a' welcome hame." 



THE END. 



200 



DEC 9 1903 



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